LIBRARY 

OF  THK 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


<v 


Received 
Accession  No. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


PKOGRESSIVE  ESSAYS, 


POPULAR, 


rOP/CS  OF  OUR  AGE. 


PROF-  H-  M-  COTTINGER.  ft.  M. 


Author  of 


or  of  "Method  of  Teaching  in  High  Schools  in  Switzerland,' 
Mediaeval  Plays  of  Jacob  Reuff,"  "Elements  of  Universal 
History,"  "Rosa  the  Educating  Mother," 


etc. 


SAN  JOSE,  CAL.: 

3?u."blish.ed  "by  tlie 


Entered  According  to  Act  of  Congress, 

-  IN   THE   YEAR    1889,  — 


PROF.  H.  M.  COTTINGER,  A.  M., 

In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,   at   Wash- 
ington, D.  C. 


THIS      VOLUME 

"PROGRESSIVE   ESSAYS  ON  POPULAR  TOP- 
ICS    OF    OUR   AGE" 

IS     RESPECTFULLY     DEDICATED     TO 

R.  B.  WESTBROOK, 

PRESIDENT    OF     AMERICAN    SECULAR    UNION 
BY 

THE    AUTHOR. 


PREFACE. 

•  -»S  4—0^0  »  H-  « 
who  expects  that  the  contents  of  this  vol- 
ume follow  the  old  ground  of  ideas  in  which 
authors  usually  move  is  mistaken;  even  the  title  of 
the  book,  "Progressive  Essays"  tells  him  what  its  tenor 
is.  It  is  conceived  and  written  in  a  progressive  spirit. 
If  our  predecessors  had  not  improved  the  literary  heri- 
tage they  received  from  their  ancestors;  where  should 
we  stand  now-a-days  ?  On  the  ground  of  the  Middle 
Ages.  Which  are  the  principal  features  of  our  Age  ? 
The  spirit  of  reform  and  improvement  in  every  sphere 
of  human  activity,  chiefly  in  public  education,  politics 
and  religion.  Saya  Percy  Douglas  (North  American 
Review,  June,  1889):  "Destruction  and  Revision  are 
the  two  most  potent  weapons  of  Progress.  By  destroy- 
ing what  is  useless,  and  by  revising  what  is  capable  of 
improvement,  we  clear  the  way  for  the  newer  thought 
of  our  own  age,  which  is  capable  of  adding  to  and  en- 
riching the  heritage  of  the  past." 

But  the  orthodox  Christians  object:  "You  wound 
our  religious  feelings."  It  is  always  the  same  old  tune 
by  which  they  accuse  their  opponents.  But  did  they 
not  hurt  the  feelings  of  the  friends  of  progress,  since 
thousands  of  years,  while  they  turned  them  out  of  their 


VI  PREFACE. 


comfortable  positions,  tore  them  from  their  wives  and 
children,  confined  them  to  prisons,  tormented  them,  put 
them  on  the  stake  and  burnt  them  alive  ?  They  say: 
"Three  times  one  is  one;"  observation  and  experience 
affirm:  "Three  times  one  are  three."  Am  I  not  right 
to  follow  reason  rather  than  blind  faith?  Christians 
are  like  chiJdren  who  don't  like  to  lay  down  their  swad- 
ling  clothes,  that  they  have  cherished  from  their  ances- 
tors: they  never  wear  out  the  shoes  of  their  babyhood* 
I  don't  interfere  with  their  religious  views;  I  don't  blame 
them  for  clinging  to  them;  I  wish  to  be  permitted  only 
to  confess  my  honest  conviction.  The  religious  feelings 
of  a  deurly  beloved  mother;  the  loss  of  a  lucrative  posi- 
tion, and  the  ties  of  a  native  country  could  not  hinder 
me  from  throwing  off  the  shackles  of  a  superstitious 
Church.  I  am  past  eighty-six  years  of  age:  how  much 
longer  can  I  live?  My  hand  is  too  stiff  to  be  bent  yet 
by  suggestions  of  convenience.  As  I  stand  at  the  verge 
of  my  grave,  it  does  not  pay  to  become  a  hypocrite  or 
renegade. 

This  is  probably  the  last  work  I  am  publishing,  be- 
cause I  am  a  very  old  man;  may  my  friends  and  pa- 
trons receive  it  with  benevolence,  and  my  opponents 
cover  it  with  the  wings  of  Christian  charity  !  May 
they  also  be  indulgent,  if  they  find  in  it  many  mistakes 
against  the  genuine  idiom  of  the  English  language.  I 
was  fifty  years  old,  when  I  learned  English.  A  lady 
who  revised  a  great  deal  of  my  M.  S.,  said  to  me,  she 
would  like  to  remodel  the  whole  book,  if  she  had  time 
for  that. 

Some  of  the  essays  appeared  before  this,  especially  in 
German  periodicals,  from  which  I  translated  them  into 
the  English. 

Concerning  the  likenesses  which   adorn   the  book,  I 


PREFACE.  Vll 

put  Abraham  Lincoln  at  the  head  of  the  Presidents  of 
the  United  States,  because,  in  my  opinion,  he  deserves 
this  place  in  the  temple  of  Honor  of  our  Nation,  being 
second  only  to  George  Washington.  I  left  out  Wash- 
ington, the  Father  of  the  Republic,  for  the  reason  that 
his  likeness  is  represented  already  in  my  book,  "Ele- 
ments of  Universal  History  for  Republics."  The  essays 
on  Public  Schools  are  headed  by  the  engraving  of  Ben- . 
jamin  Franklin  who  was  a  self  educated  scholar,  and  a 
sincere  friend  of  public  schools  The  lamented  Presi- 
dent Garfield  decorates  the  Section  on  Religion  as  a 
warning  example  against  religious  fanaticism,  a  sacri- 
fice to  which  he  fell. 

In  conclusion  I  of&r  hundred  thanks  to  the  kind  re- 
visors  of  my  MSS.,  namely:  to  Mrs.  Washburn 
(lately  Miss  Jessica  Thomson,  teacher  of  Normal 
School);  to  Misses  Clara  F.  Bennett  and  Fannie  M. 
Estabrook,  teachers  of  Normal  School;  to  Misses  Belle 
and  Mary  Bird,  and  Miss  Magdalene  Schilling,  Public 
Teachers  in  San  Jose;  to  Miss  Agnes  Barry,  Public 
Librarian;  to  E.  A.  Clark,  M.  IX,  in  San  Jose. 

THE  AUTHOR. 

San  Jose,  California,  1889. 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS.— SECTION  I. 


ESSAYS   ON    PUBLIC   SCHOOLS: PAGE* 

Which   branches  of  instruction  should  be    taught    in    our    Public 

Schools, 15. 

National  Education  in  Republics,.. 20. 

Influence  of  Public  life  opon  National  Education, 28. 

Method  of  teaching  Arithmetic  and  Algebra  in  our  Common  Schools,  32. 

H.  Pestalozzi's  Method  of  Teaching, 38. 

A  contribution  on  School  Discipline, 46. 

On  studying  Foreign  Languages, 49. 

How  I  Studied  the  English  Language, 55. 

Musical  Bungling  of  School  Girls, 57. 

On  the  study  of  the  German  Language, 58. 

Sectarian  Doctrines  in  the  Text  Books  of  our  Schools, 61. 

What  Influence  exercise  the  efforts  of  the  North  American  Turner 
Bund  with  regard  to  Public  Education,  and  to  what  Expectations 

do  those  Efforts  entitle? 66. 

SECTION  II. 

ESSAYS   ON   NATURAL   SCIENCE: — 

On  a  Piece  of  Chalk,— Imitated  from  Th.  Huxley, 86. 

Voices  of  Science  on  some  tenets  ef  Materialism, 95. 

Matter  and  Force,— Extract  from  Buchner, 102. 

A  Trip  to  the  Geysers  in  the  National  Park,  Wyoming  Territory, 121. 

Two  Scenes  from  Lord  Byron's  "Manfred," 131. 

SECTION  III. 

ESSAYS   ON    POLITICAL   AND   SOCIAL  QUESTIONS: — 

Festival  Oration  delivered  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  i 135. 

Social  and  Political  Wants, 143, 

The  Right  of  the  use  of  the  Earth,— Extract  from  H.  Spencer, 147. 

The  Land  Question,— Report  from  L.  Buchner, 149. 

A  Speech  on  the  Rights  of  Women, 151. 

A  Misalliance,— Translated  from  Don  Quixote  of  M.Cervantes, 157. 

A  selection  from  Ed.  Bellamy's  work  "Looking  Backward,"— 168. 


Viii  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

SECTION  IV. 

HISTORICAL   ESSAYS   AND   BIOGRAPHIES: — 

Policy  of  Bismark,  Chancelor  of  the  German  Empire, 177. 

Capture  and  Execution  of  the  Counts,  Egmont  and  Horn, 179. 

Description  of  the  Public  Morals  in  Switzerland  as  they  were  before 

and  after  the  Reformation, 195. 

Charles  XII  of  Sweden,  defends  himself  with  Forty  Domestics, 

against  a  whole  army,— Translated  from  Voltaire, 199. 

History  of  Switzerland  in  Modern  times, 204. 

I.— In  the  Eighteenth  Century, 204. 

Condition  of  the  Common  Schools, 208. 

2.— In  the  Ninteenth  Century, 211. 

Civilization  in  Switzerland  since  1830 223. 

Common  Schools, 226. 

Secondary  Schools, 227. 

Biographical  Sketches, 228. 

H.  Pestalozzi, 228. 

L.  Beethoven,  Fr.  Schubert,  Fr.  Abt,  and  G.  Nageli, 239. 

W.  Mozart,— 242. 

SECTION  V. 

ESSAYS  ON  RELIGION: — 

The  Three  Salvation  Churches, 269. 

Critique  of  Revelations, 270. 

Old  and  New  Faith, 278. 

What  are  the  Dogmas  of  the  Bible  still  worth  to  our  age  ? 283. 

What  are  the  Morals  of  the  Bible  still  worth  to  our  age? 289. 

The  Call  of  Dr.  David  Frederick  Strauss, 

The  Somnambulist  of  W Switzerland,— 300. 

Petition  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Clergy,  directed   to  His  Holiness, 

Pope  Leo  XII, 303. 

Funeral  Addresses, 306. 

1.— At  the  Grave  of  a  Suicide, 306. 

2.— At  the  Grave  of  a  Mother, 310. 

3  and  4.— At  the  Graves  of  Children, 314-319. 


BENJ.  FKANKLIK 


SECTIOISr  FIRST. 

ON  PUBLIC  EDUCATION. 


WHICH  BRANCHES  OF  INSTRUCTION 

SHOULD  BE  TAUGHT  IN  OUH 

PUBLIC  SCHOOLS. 


MOMENT  OF  PUBLIC  SI-IOOLS. 

In  order  to  perform  the  work  of  national  education, 
we  want  public  schools  that  are  founded  and  paid  by 
the  people,  institutes  that  should  be  well  endowed,  well 
frequented,  and  well  superintended.  For  this  purpose, 
teachers,  also,  are  necessary,  who  should  be  well  in- 
structed, well  paid,  and,  according  to  their  perform- 
ance, honored.  After  the  inhabitants  of  a  State  have 
provided  their  physical  necessaries  and  satisfied  their 
material  wants,  it  is  their  most  important  business, 
their  most  sacred  duty,  to  elevate  the  growing  genera- 
tion, at  least  to  their  own  level  of  culture.  It  is  to  us 
a  matter  of  importance  to  bequeath  to  our  descendants 
lands,  horses,  and  workshops,  railroads,  mills  and  tele- 
graphs ;  but  it  is  still  more  important  to  leave  behind 
us,  WELL  EDUCATED  CHILDREN,  for  they  are  the  seed  of 
material  prosperity.  The  best  use  a  State  can  make  of 
its  wealth,  is  to  spend  it  for  educational  purposes. 

EDUCATION    .SHOULD    BE    PROGRESSIVE. 

The  perfection  of  the  human  race  increases  in  every 
age.  'The  four  leading  nations  of  civilization,  the  Eng- 
lish, French,  Germans.,  and  North  Americans,  have, 
during  hundred  year,-.,  evidently  at  least  doubled  the 
rate  of  mental  progress.  In  the  United  States,  wealth 
is  constantly  and  rapidly  increasing;  more  rapidly  than 
is  the  number  of  inhabitants.  In  this  way,  not  only 
the  pedagogic  perfection  of  the  human  race  is  bettered 
in  every  ago,  but.  the  power  of  the  State  to  afford  to 
everybody  a  better  opportunity  for  better  education, 
also  increases  in  constant,  progression.  Therefore,  the 
now  adult  generation  is  apt  and  is  obliged  to  receive 


in  ox  PUIJIJC 


a  better  education  than  their  fathers,  and  to  lelave  l)eliin«l 
to  their  children  a  more  favorable  chance  to  acquire  it. 

THE  PRESENT  GENERATION  OUGHT  TO  EDUCATE  THE 
XEXT. 

Every  talented  child  of  our  century  is,  at  the  foot  of 
the  scale  of  knowledge,  exactly  so  born,  as  the  child  of 
the  first  pair  of  men,  with  the  same  physical  and  mental 
nakedness,  though  a  descendant  from  the  most  cultivated 
race  —  with  six  thousand  or  six  hundred  thousand  years 
behind  it:  —  it  can  begin  with  nothing  but  itself.  Still, 
the  connection  of  the  human  race  is  so  close  that  this 
child,  with  the  help  of  the  present  generation,  in  a  short 
series  of  years,  will  learn  much,  if  not  all,  which  human 
kind  has  learned  in  its  long  history,  and  then  will  edu- 
cate, to  the  same  height,  the  new  offspring,  which  will, 
in  its  turn,  excel  its  educator.  True,  they  say  that  we 
are  an  educated  people,  and  especially  the  American 
will  make  us  believe  that  his  State  is  the  most  perfect 
on  earth.  Well,  compared  with  most  nations  of  the 
world,  the  result  maybe  favorable  to  us;  but  compared 
with  the  ideal  which  the  State  should  realize  through 
the  education  of  its  citizens,  ours  also  has  not  yet  at- 
tained the  highest  standard  of  excellence. 

BRANCHES    OF    LEARNING. 

The  old  method  to  cram  the  memory  with  much  un- 
conceived  stuff*  of  science,  to  educate  the  young  man 
for  the  church  and  heaven,  to  teach  principally  the  dead 
languages,  is  waning  ;  on  the  contrary,  they  try  to  en- 
lighten the  intellect  by  the  mathematics;  they  acknowl- 
edge the  native  language  to  be  the  most  important,  and, 
in  general,  instruct  the  youth  in  such  sciences  and  abili- 
ties which  enable  it  for  common  life,  and  outfit  it  to  be 
useful,  by  and  by  to  itself,  to  their  country  and  to  man- 
kind. The  natural  sciences  too,  are  therefore  introduced 
into  the  higher  institutions,  and,  in  fact,  even  into  the 
common  schools.  In  order  to  bring  about  the  public 
education  of  children,  we  want  two  classes  of  schools: 
common  and  higher  schools;  permit  me  to  say  some 


ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION,  17 

words  on  both  of  them.  The  common  schools  are  de- 
signed to  take  the  children,  at  the  proper  age,  from  their 
mothers,  in  order  to  impart  to  them  the  most  necessary 
intellectual,  moral,  and  physical  development,  and  to 
endow  them  with  so  much  useful  learning  as  they  can 
take  hold  of.  I  said,  "at  the  proper  age."  But  expe- 
rience teaches  that  some  mothers,  in  some  States, 
bring  even  children  who  are  four  years  old  to 
school,  only  that  (as  they  say)  "they  may  be  out 
of  their  way,  and,  in  the  meantime,  learn  to  sit  still," 
The  school  law  of  States  that  permits  them  to  commit 
this  folly  is  to  be  condemned.  The  three  most  import- 
ant means  of  education  are  reading,  writing  and  cipher- 
ing. In  most  States,  geography,  history  of  the  United 
States,  and  English  grammar,  are  added  to  these 
branches.  In  some,  the  general  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  and  that  of  their  own  State  is  also  taught, 
for  it  is  convenient  for  the  citizen  of  a  free  State,  even 
if  he  be  young,  to  know  their  essential  parts. 

DOCTRINE  OF  MORALS  AND  NATURAL  LAW. 

The  mind  of  the  youth  wants,  also,  an  incentive 
toward  and  nutrition  for  goodness  and  virtue ;  therefore, 
the  principles  of  morals  and  natural  rights  and  duties, 
should  be  communicated  in  our  public  schools.  It  can 
hardly  be  denied  that  the  actual  school  systems  are  too 
narrow  in  this  regard ;  for  while  they  cultivate  the  in- 
tellect and  memory  of  the  school  children,  they  neglect 
their  moral  culture  almost  entirely.  The  consequence 
of  this  defect  is  more  or  less  roughness  of  the  youth, 
which  rather  often  is  obvious  in  our  streets,  especially 
in  our  larger  towns.  Some  zealots  think  that  this  de- 
fect of  the  schools  could  and  should  be  remedied  by  the 
introduction  of  the  bible.  But  experience  teaches  that 
a  mere  lecture  upon  this  book  is  not  interesting  to  the 
pupils.  That  it  is  of  no  use  as  a  means  of  instruction,  if 
used  in  the  lump,  is  probably  the  universal  opinion  of 
pedagogues.  It  might  be  also  difficult  to  procure  fit 
p.vt.rn.r'ts  of  the  book  for  the  instruction  of  vrmth. 


18  ON  rri'.Lir  i;r>r  CATION. 


Many  parents  reject,  also,  this  "divine  authority,"  and 
as  we  enjoy  liberty  H)f  conscience,  they  can,  even  for 
this  reason,  protest  against  its  introduction  into  the  pub- 
lic schools,  -But  be  this  enough!  If  I  were  to  discuss 
more  profoundly  this  controversy,  I  should  go  hey  on,  I 
the  limits  of  this  communication. 

PHYSICAL    TRAINING. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  most  desirable  to  develop, 
also,  the  physical  faculties  of  school  children,  especially 
in  towns,  .where  they  have  less  opportunity  than  in  the 
country  to  acquire  the  necessary  strength  and  agility 
of  the  limbs.  Jahn,  the  father  of  German  gymnastics, 
says,  in  accordance  with  this:  "The  gymnastics  ought 
to  re-establish  the  lost  evenness  of  human  culture,  to  co- 
ordinate true  materiality  of  the  body  with  one-sided 
spirituality,  and  to  seize  the  entire  man  in  the  juvenile 
intercourse."  Pestalozzi,  Niemeier,  and  other  great  ped- 
agogues, concur  in  this  matter. 

NATURAL    SCIENCE. 

The  book  of  Nature,  with  her  wonders  in  her 
laws,  in  the  starred  sky,  in  the  kingdoms  of  animals, 
plants,  and  minerals,  should  also  be  exhibited  to  the 
youth'1  as  part  of  their  curriculum.  Thomas  Huxley 
says  in  his  "Lay  Sermons":  "Modern  civilization  rests 
upon-1  the  natural  sciences ;  all  ideas  of  the  present  age 
are  rooted  in  them;  they  entered  into  the  works  of  our 
best  poets,  and  even  the  great  book-learned  writers, 
who  feign  to  despise  them,  owe  them  their  best  produc- 
tions. The  greatest  revolution  of  mind  mankind  ever 
saw,  is  inaugurated  insensibly  by  their  influence.  They 
teach  mankind  that  the  highest  court  of  human  mind 
is  observation  and  experience,  not  blind  authority;  they 
teach  us  to  esteem  the  value  of  demonstration;  they 
create  a  profound  faith  in  the  existence  of  immutable 


ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  11) 

moral  and  physical  laws,  which  to  obey  is  the  goal  of 
a  rational  being.  But  the  old,  stereotypical  system  of 
education  takes  not  any  notice  of  all  this.  The  riddles 
and  difficulties  of  the  natural  sciences  meet  the  poorest 
l)o  vat  every  step;  nevertheless,  we  educate  him  in  such 
•  ;i  manner  that  he  will  enter  into  the  world  as  ignorant 
of  its  laws  and  facts  as  he  was  when  he  was  born.  Pos- 
terity will  cry  shame  upon  us,  if  we  don't  correct  this 
deplorable  condition  of  public  schools." 

Physiology,  especially,  should  be  also  a  branch  of 
doctrine  in  the  higher  grades  of  our  common  schools. 
It  explains  to  the  scholars  the  organization  of  the 
human  body,  and  the  laws  from  which  the  conservation 
of  their  life  and  health;  their  physical  force  and  welfare 
depend. 

DEAWIXG  &  SINGING. 

Finally  the  sense  of  beauty  should  also  be  cultivated 
in  our  schools.  There  are  two  brandies  of  learning, 
that  tend  to  develop  it: :  drawing  and  singing.  Children 
like  them  both.  Drawing  is  also  useful  in  business,  and 
life  and  in  several  kinds  of  trade,  The  art  of  song 
re  fine -»  the  enjoyment  of  life  and  joins  closer  the  ties  of 
friendship  between  schoolmates  and  children  of  the  sume 
age.  In  common  schools  of  Zurich,  Switzerland,  singing 
and  drawing,  besides  zoology,  botany  and  natural  phi- 
losoohv  were,  fifty  years  ago,  branches  of  instruction. 

1 1 ( III"  till  FlMvK-SCnoOJ.S. 

.Besides  the  common  \ve  want  higher  free-schools, 
which  also  should  : 'led  by  public  officer^, 

and  s  '•     The  idea,  which  lies 

at  til  i>u  in  a  free  country  is 

this:   Every   bodv  who  fid  (ills  his  duty  is  entitled  to  the 
mean-  ation  wivh  the  same  right  asr to  protection 

against  the  public  enemy  ir,  war-time,  or  against  starv- 


20  ox  ruKLfc  umxATfoy. 

ation  in  time  of  abundance  and  peace.  If  all  institutes 
are  free,  the  common  schools,  the  high  school,  academics., 
or  however  the  higher  institutes  of  learning  may  he 
called,  boys  and  girls,  with  common  talents  and  ordinary 
fondness  of  learning,  will  acquire  a  common  school 
education;  those  of  better  abilities,  a  more  extensive, 
and  those  of  the  highest  mental  power,  the  best  which 
our  race  and  own  State  can  presently  afford.  These 
higher  institutes  of  learning  must,  in  a  free  country, 
also  be  established  at  public  expense,  otherwise  the  rich 
will  have  a  monopoly  of  higher  education,  and.  conse- 
quently, also  the  monopoly  of  the  officers,  advantages, 
and  honors,  which  depend  on  a  higher  education.  Or 
the  means  are  procured  for  poor  children  by  private 
'donations,  charitable  foundations,  etc;  in  this  case,  the 
institutes  will  be  impregnated  with  the  character  of  a 
definite  sect,  conducted  by  short-sighted  bigoted  men, 
and  combined  with  circumstances  that  will  fetter  the 
free  mind  of  the  young  men. 

They  say  often  that  a  higher  education  is  not 
necessary  for  the  people,  the  common  school  being 
sufficient  for  it,  for  they  think  that  a  higher 
culture  is  needed  only  for  lawyers,  poets,  clergy- 
men, etc.,  not  for  the  man  as  man.  It  is  not  so.  We 
want  every-where  well  educated  men,  not  for  the  sake 
of  caste,  but  for  the  sake  of  man.  Every  man  of  higher 
intellectual  and  moral  education,  every  so  trained  woman 
is  a  safe-guard  and  a  blessing  to  the  country:  it  matters 
little  if  they  be  seated  on  the  bench  of  a  poet  or  slice- 
maker,  occupied  with  teaching  or  needle-work,  be  clergy- 
men or  mechanics:  they  are,  nevertheless  a  safe-guard 
and  a  blessing.  The  belief  that  nobody  should  obtain 
a  higher  education  except  certain  men,  and  these  only 
for  the  sake  of  rank,  falls  to  the  dark  middle  ages,  and 
is  unworthy  of  a  free  State, 

NATIONAL  EDUCATION  IN  REPUBLICS. 

EDUCATION  IN  REPUBLICS  18  NECESSARY. 
TTiia    pnmmnrn  ration    is    no    npiljKrop'iV     trpatisp      V»v 


ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  21 


iiy 

: 


which  the  kind  reader  must  fear  to  be  bored;  but  it 
represents  practical  views  of  able  thinkers  (f.  i.  of  Theo- 
dore Parker,  Emanuel  Kant,  etc.,)  although  I  perhaps, 
shall  be  obliged  to  touch  unflinchingly  upon  some  foul 
spots  of  our  politic  body.  To  educate  means  to  develop  the 
faculties  of  man.  Education  of  the  people,  is  the  de- 
velopment and  cultivation  of  the  faculties  of  the  whole 
people,  of  all  members  of  the  State.  There  was  a  time 
when  State  and  Church  were  a  unity,  and  the  clergymen 
organized  and  governed,  according  to  their  own  know- 
ledge and  aims,  also  the  schools. 

EDUCATION  IN   MODERN  TIMES. 

In  modern  times,  most  of  the  civilized  nations  have 
separated,  emancipated  the  schools  entirely  or  partly 
from  the  church;  even  in  Austria,  where  the  govern- 
ment always  acted  hand  in  hand  with  the  Church,  the 
party  of  progress  obtained  that  emancipation  and  main- 
tained it,  till  lately. 

IN    ENGLAND. 

In  England  the  State  takes  care  of  the  education  of 
the  nobility,  the  rich  and  privileged.  The  government 
of  England  is  aristocratic;  most  of  the  public  offices 
are  the  monopoly  of  the  nobility  and  the  rich  consequently 
the  State  must  particularly  provide  for  the  children  of 
the  noble  and  rich  families.  The  noble  and  rich  caste 
is  considered  to  be  the  blossom  of  the  State;  the  common 
people  form  only  the  foliage,  and  are  of  little  worth  in 
the  political  botany  of  the  nation;  their  education  is 
amazingly  neglected,  is  left  to  chance,  to  the  zeal  of 
benevolent  philantropists,  and  to  the  efforts  of  poor 
mechanics  and  trades-men.  Few  among  the  lower  classes 
know  how  to  write,  many  know  not  even  how  to  read. 
The  order  of  teachers  is  little  respected,  and  not  seldom 
publicly  ezposed  toderision.  Proofs  of  this  fact  can  eas- 
ily be  found  in  the  very  popular  novels  of  Chas.  Dickesn. 

FORMER  EDUCATION    IN  AMERICA. 

In  former  times  public  education  was  also  one-gided 
in  America,  the  State  for  the  militarv  cultivation  of 


22  OX    PUBLIC    EDUCATION. 

its  citizens  only  taking  care,  and  over-looking  their 
mental  and  moral  education;  they  received  their  military 
discipline,  not  alone  for  their  personol  advantage,  but 
in  behalf  of  the  State.  The  ablest  persons  of  the 
nation  were  chosen  teachers,overcharged  with  honor  and 
gold.  The  riches  of  the  nation  were  spent  for  this 
purpose.  The  military  Academy  at  West  Point  was 
esteemed  the  most  important  higher  public  institute  of 
instructem.  The  soldier  passed  as  the  model,  as  the 
pattern  of  man  in  the  State;  in  consequence,  the  highest 
mental  function  of  the  State  was,  to  create  soldiers. 
Most  of  the  civilized  nations  have  passed  this  course. 
But  it  shall  not  be  so,  at  least  in  free  States,  and  my 
purpose  is  here  to  demonstrate  that  the, .highest  duty  of 
our  State  is  the  general  education  of  the  people  and  the 
main  tai  nance  of  good  public  schools. 

NATIONAL    EDUCATION  IS  THE  DUTY  OF  A    REPUBLIC., 

Education  of  the  people  is  a  sacred  duty  of  the  State 
which  cannot  be  rejected;  for  "man  cannot  become  a 
man  but  by  education,"  as  Kant,  the  philosopher  of 
Kbnigsberg,  says.  In  the  free  States  of  America  it  is 
generally  admitted  that  the  nation  owes  an  opportunity 
of  both  mental  and  moral  education  to  every  one  of  its 
children.  The  child  has  a  just,  inalienable  claim  upon 
the  nation  for  the  means  of  its  education,  which  shall 
fall  to  his  share,  not  by  charity,  by  right.  Every  man, 
in  tliB  State,  is  entitled  to  education;  this  right  rests 
upon  the  natural  reason;  that  e very-one  is  capable  of 
education.  This  right  is  so  much  the  more  valid  in 
republics,  in  which  the  public  treasury  not  only  must  be 
supported  by  all,  but  its  moneys  ought  also  to  be  spent 
for  the  benefit  of  all.  Free  States  are  obliged  by  right 
to  give  all  the  children  the  most  necessary  elementary 
eulture;  nay,  in  general,  the  highest  culture  that  can  be 
afforded  of  all  faculties.  Institutions  must  be  founded 
for  this  purpose  in  order  to  educate  all,  both  the  poor 


ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  23 

and  the  rich  children  with  good  and  poor  talents.     The 
reasons     on     which     this  principle    rests     are     these: 

EDUCATION   IS    OF    ADVANTAGE    TO    EVERY     CITIZEN. 

A  good  education  is  necessary  to  the  welfare  of  every 
citizen,  without  further  regard  to  the  interest  of  the 
State.  Man  is  man,  and  the  State  exists  just  as  much 
for  him  as  he  exists  for  the  State.  He  has  the  rights  of 
a  man,  and  though,  in  power,  subordinate  to  others,  of 
low  extraction,  with  no  fortune  at  all,  with  the  weakest 
body :  still  he  is  a  man,  and  therefore  has  equal  rights 
to  those  of  every  other,  even  if  this  other  descends  from 
famous  ancestors,  is  rich  and  skillful.  Any  man  is 
therefore  entitled  to  the  opportunity  of  the  best  culture 
of  which  mankind,  generally,  is  capable,  or  which  the 
circumstances  of  his  nation  make  to  anybody  obtainable ; 
he  is  entitled  to  such  a  share  of  it  as  his  native  talents 
and  his  own  application  permit  him  to  take.  The 
northern  States  have  given  effort  for  the  most  part  to 
this  principle,  for  there  are  even  institutes  for  the  deaf 
and  dumb,  for  insane  people  and  criminals.  The  repub- 
lic will  never  have  fulfilled  its  pedagogic  duty,  till  it 
has  provided  to  everybody  an  opportunity  to  acquire 
the  greatest  amount  of  education  which  the  nature  of 
our  race,  under  the  present  relations  of  the  nation,  and 
the  faculties  of  the  individual  make  possible. 

EDUCATION    IS    NECESSARY    FROM  A    POLITICAL    STAND- 
POINT. 

If  we  consider  the  matter  from  the  political  stand- 
point, we  arrive  at  the  same  result.  The  welfare  of  the 
State  requires,  in  general,  the  best  possible  education  of 


24  ON   PUBLIC    EDUCATION. 


the  people.  For  everyone  who  is  not  a  criminal,  and 
has  attained  his  twenty-first  year,  has  a  right  to  vote, 
can  be  elected  to  an  honorable  office ;  the  highest  place 
of  honor  is  accessible  to  him.  As  so  great  consequences- 
depend  upon  wisdom  and  honesty  in  voting,  every  citi- 
zen must  have  opportunity  to  acquire  that  ability  which 
is  necessary,  in  order  both  to  elect  and  be  elected  well, 
Now-a-days,  it  is,  in  a  republic,  as  necessary  that  all  be 
cultivated  by  education  for  that  purpose,  as  once,  in  a 
military  State,  it  was  necessary  to  train  all  to  be  soldiers ! 
It  is  not  easy  to  determine  the  limits  of  the  standard  of 
national  education;  this  standard  must  always  rise 
higher.  Considered  from  the  standpoint  of  mankind, 
there  are  no  other  limits  of  development  than  the 
faculties  of  our  race;  in  general  and  those  of  the  individ- 
ual, in  particular.  True,  only  few  citizens  will  reach 
the  highest  grade  of  culture;  some  will  stay  behind 
from  want  of  strength,  others  from  want  of  inclination. 
Make  education  as  accessible,  as  it  can  be  made 
presently;  as  interesting  as  the  teachers  of  the  age  can 
make  it:  nevertheless,  the  majority  will  derive  the  small- 
est benefit  possible;  only  a  few  will  strive  for  the  highest 
degree.  For  one  scholar,  there  will  be  many  thousand 
farmers,  merchants  and  mechanics.  This,  too,  is  as  it 
ought  to  be,  and  harmonizes  with  man's  nature  and 
destiny.  But  all  have  the  natural  right  to  the  means  of 
education  to  this  extent. 

AN    IGNORANT    PEOPLE    IS    ABUSED    BY     SELFISH    POLI- 
TICIANS. 

A  better  and  a  general  education,  is  in  a  republic 
unconditionally  necessary.  Ignorant  men  are  instru- 
ments of  the  sly  demagogue:  how  often  does  he  abuse 
them,  and  for  what  selfish  purposes.  Let  people  be 


ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  2>) 

ignorant,  and  have  the  right  to  vote,  then,  a  few 
will  rule  the  State,  and  laugh  at  the  folly  of  the  applaud- 
ing multitude,  the  livelihood  of  whom  they  spoil, 
and  on  the  neck  of  whom  they  insolently  ride.  One  half- 
blind  can  see,  how  we  always  suffer,  in  political  matters, 
from  want  of  national  education.  Some  nations  are 
ridden  by  priests,  some  by  princes,  others  by  nobles; 
the  Americans  by  politicians — a  heavy  charge  for  a 
foolish  neck! 

EDUCATION    FROM     THE    INDUSTRIAL    POINT    OF    VIEW 

Our  individual  interests,  too,  demand  a  careful 
education.  Our  industrial  welfare,  our  rich  lands,  our 
railroads,  mills,  machines,  the  harness  we  put  on  the 
elements  (for  we  subdue  fire  and  water,  nay,  even  the 
lightning)  are  all  the  material  products  of  our 
intelligence,  the  fruits  of  the  efforts  with  which  the 
State  charges  itself  for  the  sake  of  the  national 
education.  Take  away  the  half  of  the  education,  and 
you  take  three-fourths  of  your  industrial  fortune  away; 
double  this  education:  and  you  augment  the  indus- 
trial welfare  of  the  people  four  times;  nay,  more  than 
that;  for  the  results  of  the  education  increase  in  a 
ratio  of  much  higher  numbers.  If,  in  the  Northern 
States,  there  never  a  free  school  had  been,  not  half  of 
their  mechanics  and  farmers,  not  the  fourth  part  of  their 
women  would  now  be  able  to  read;  it  is  needless  to  say, 
in  what  a  condition  their  agriculture,  their  factories, 
their  commerce  would  be;  they  would  be,  perhaps,  even 
behind  South  Carolina, 

EDUCATION    NEGLECTED    IX    TIIK    SLAVK    STATES. 

Now,  permit  me  still  to  apply  the  principles  discussed 


26  ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION. 


to  actual  life,  and,  as  it  were  to  embody  them  in  some 
examples.  In  the  former  Slave  States,  the  parents  of  the 
free  planters  transmitted  their  opinions  on  slavery  to 
their  children;  these  again  to  their  grand-children;  schools, 
there  either  existed  not  at  all,  or  they  were,  for  the  most 
part,  badly  organized.  The  slaves  themselves  were,  as 
a  rule,  from  instruction  entirely  excluded.  Is  it  to  be 
wondered  that  a  large  class  of  men,  in  those  soi-disant 
"Free-States"  were  tyrannized,  as  were  the  Helots  of  the 
ancient  Spartans,  that,  finally,  a  secession  league  was 
brought  about,  and  a  bloody  civil  war  broke  out? 

AND    IN    FRANCE. 

The  higher  castes  of  France  are,  indeed,  highly  cul- 
tivated, and,  in  arts  and  sciences,  men,  like  La  Place, 
Legendre,  Thiers,  Cuvier,  Arago,  occupy  a  high  rank, 
but  the  instruction  of  the  lower  classes  of  the  nation 
there  also  was  (as  is  well  know^n)  sadly  neglected,  be- 
fore the  Franco-German  war  (1870.)  Then,  almost 
half  of  the  inhabitants  knew  neither  how  to  read  or 
to  write.  For  the  common  schools,  the  State  spent  only 
six  millions  of  francs;  on  the  contrary,  for  the  land  and 
naval  forces,  four  hundred  and  sixty-three  millions. 
More  than  four  thousand  parishes  had  no  schools, 
and  a  million  of  children  failed  to  receive  instruc- 
tion. So  much  the  more  the  church  (the  Cath- 
olic of  course)  flourished,  which  also  superintended 
the  schools,  not  to  their  advantage.  According  to  the 
statistic  tables  there  were  16  archbishops,  69  suffragans, 
661  precendaries,  in  a  word:  44,000  priests,  and  besides 
an  army  of  25,000  monks  and  nuns. 


ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  27 


PROPER    EDUCATION  IN  GERMANY. 

ON  the  contrary,  Germany,  and  especially  Prussia, 
would  never  have  won  so  brilliant  victories,  and  made 
so  fast  conquests  in  France  (in  1870  and  1871,)  if  they 
had  not  before  founded  good  schools,  and  created  a 
proper  national  education.  Even  American  journals 
acknowledge  the  fac';  that  the  Germans  owe  the  superiority 
of  their  arms  to  their  intellectual  ascendency.  As  long 
as  the  Germans  are  better  educated  than  the  French, 
they  need  not  be  afraid  of  their  arms. 

OUR  SCHOOLS  ARE  OUR  BULWARKS. 

America,  too,  is  secure  against  a  foreign  enemy,  if  she 
proceeds  vigorously  on  the  path  of  culture.  Not  in 
foreign  arms,  but  in  our  midst  is  the  enemy;  in  the 
ignorance  and  vileness  of  our  own  citizens  menaces  the 
danger;  in  the  ignorance  of  the  many,  in  the  vileness  of 
the  few,  who  lead  the  many  to  their  ruin.  America's 
breast-works  are  not  her  armies,  fleets  and  iron-clad 
vessels,  with  all  the  men  who  are  instructed  in  tactics  at 
public  expense,  are  not  the  swords  and  guns  of  our 
armories;  are  not  powder  and  cannons,  not  the  fortresses 
of  stone,  built  on  the  coasts  of  our  oceans  and  lakes; 
they  could  all  be  destroyed  during  night-time,  and  still 
the  nation  would  be  as  secure  as  now.  The  strongest 
bulwarks  of  the  United  States  are  her  schools.  The 
cheap  elementary  book,  or  the  vane  of  her  school-house 
is  a  better  symbol  of  the  nation  than  is  the  star  spangled 
b  inner.  The  printing-press  does  more  than  the  cannon, 
is  more  powerful  than  the  sword.  President  J.  Monroe 
said  appropriately  (in  his  writing:  the  people — the  so- 
vereigns:) "An  enlightened  people  is  able  to  organize  the 
best  form  of  government  which  human  wisdom  can  de- 


28  ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION. 

vise,  and  may  safely  hope  to  maintain  it  for  any  length." 
Be  it, -therefore,  our  most  important  care  to  educate  well 
the  people;  be  it  the  watch-word  of  our  civil  activity: 
"Improvement  of  our  public  schools."  Then  our  people 
will  occupy  a  high  rank  among  the  nations  of  the  earth, 
and  prosperity,  power  and  glory  will  abide  the  heritage 
of  our  prosterity. 

INFLUENCE  OF    THE  PUBLIC  LIFE  UPON  NATIONAL 
EDUCATION 

Education  of  man  is  not  ended  with  the  instruction 
he  has  received  in  school;  if  considered  in  the  strictest 
sense,  it  is  never  finished;  but  it  comprehends  two 
periods  which  are  quite  dissimilar  from  each  other:  the 
period  of  childhood,  and  that  of  the  mature  age.  I 
repeat  wrhat  I  said  in  another  essay  (national  education 
in  Republics) — education,  in  general,  is  devalopement 
and  cultivation  of  human  faculties;  therefore  it  must  be 
the  same  in  both  periods,  though  it  is  effected  by  differ- 
ent agencies.  We  all  know  that  education  of  the  child 
is  brought  about  by  the  schools,  by  instruction  of  the 
teacher. 

EDUCATION  OF  THE  FULL  GROWN  MAN. 

The  means  which  influence  the  combined  education  of 
man  are  probably  not  so  generally  knoAvn:  There  are, 
principally,  four  of  them,  namely:  the  political,  the  in- 
dustrial, the  ecclesiastic  and  the  literary  power  of  the 
people.  Its  political  power  is  represented  by  the  State, 
its  industrial  by  trade  and  commerce,  its  ecclesiastic  by 
the  Church,  its  literary  by  the  press.  Let  us,  in  a  few 
words,  examine  these  four  powers,  and  see  what  influence 
they  probably  exert  in  the  education  of  the  people. 


ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  29 

BRIGHT    SIDE  OF    THE  NATIONAL    AGENCIES    OF 
EDUCATION. 

It  is  evident  that  trade  and  commerce,  press  and 
politics  promote  activity  of  men.  Business  instigates 
the  desire  for  gain  and  the  spirit  of  enterprise  to  great 
exertions,  and  increases,  thereby,  the  development  of  the 
forces  of  the  State.  Commerce  advances  the  connection 
between  the  citizens  of  a  State  and  the  foreign  nations; 
invites  the  inventive  spirit,  and  subdues  all  elements. 
The  press  rouses  to  the  same  activity  and  perseverance; 
it  provides  us  the  best  and  cheapest  books,  by  the 
journals  it  gives  us  the  news  from  all  parts  of  the  world. 
The  State,  too,  promotes  the  activity  of  mind;  every 
citizen  has  his  share  of  the  public  wealth  and  woe,  and 
of  the  right  of  suffrage;  all  grand  questions  are  left  to 
the  decision  of  the  people;  the  career  of  public  offices 
is  open  to  every-one.  The  Church  (without  distinction 
of  the  different  sects)  venerates  Jesus  of  Nazareth;  its 
ministers  recommend  the  common  virtues,  warn  against 
the  prevalent  vices,  and  tell  us  that  we  should  respect 
and  love  also  the  poor  and  humble.  These  are  some 
of  the  good  sides  of  the  four  great  national  forces;  but 
every  one  has  also  its  peculiar  faults  which  are  apt  to 
misdirect  the  nation,  and  to  hinder  thereby  the  general 
education  of  the  people.  Let  us  speak  also  from  these, 
and,  in  order  to  incur  not  the  suspicion  of  partiality, 
J  make  free  to  use  the  words  of  an  American,  Theodore 
Parker,*  who  must  know  best  his  country-men. 

FAULTS  OF  THE   NATIONAL   FORCES   OF   EDUCATION. 
FAULTS  OF  THE  STATE. 

"The  men"  he  says,  "whom  we  politically  honor, 
choosing  them  to  the  highest  offices,  are  sometimes  only 


30  OX    PUBLIC    EDUCATION. 


good  soldiers,  perhaps  also  heroes,  but  have,  for  the  rest, 
conscience  of  the  most  vulgar  pattern.  If  you  look  at 
the  actions  of  the  chief  political  parties,  you  see  no  more 
respect  for  justice  in  the  politics  of  either  party,  than 
in  the  politics  of  the  nation.  One  part  goes  for  the 
dollar;  the  other  for  the  majority,  leaving  the  good  of 
the  smaller  number  to  most  uncertain  mercies.  False- 
hood, a  desire  for  the  power  and  distinction  of  offices — 
these  vices  are  sown  with  a  pretty  even  hand  upon  both 
parties." 


^Theodore  Parker,  speeches  and  addresses,  2nd  vol. 

FAULTS    OF    THE  CHURCH. 

The  Church  has  the  same  faults  as  the  State.  It 
teaches  injustice  by  continually  referring  to  the  might 
of  God,  not  his  justice;  to  his  ability  and  will  to  damn 
mankind.  The  churches  have  little  love  to  truth,  ex- 
cept to  canonized  truth.  They  represent  the  average 
intelligence  of  society,  hence,  while  keeping  the  old, 
they  welcome  not  the  new.  They  dishonor  free  think- 
ing, and  venerate  constrained  believing.  Few  scien- 
tific men  believe  the  Bible  account  of  the  creation,  or 
that  of  the  formation  of  woman,  and  of  the  deluge. 
The  clerical  men,  who  have  no  faith  in  these  stories, 
not  only  leave  the  people  to  think  them  true,  but  en- 
courage men  in  the  belief,  and  calumniate  the  men  of 
science.  In  morals,  as  well  as  science,  the  Church  is 
on  the  anti-liberal  side,  afraid  of  progress,  conservative 
and  chilling.  It  passes,  like  that  priest  and  Levite, 
on  the  other  side  of  the  least  developed  classes  of 
society,  leaving  the  slave,  the  pauper,  and  the  criminal 
to  their  fate — hastening  to  strike  hands  with  the  thriv- 


ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  31 

ing  or  rich.  These  faults  are  shared  in  the  main  by 
all  sects — some  have  them  in  the  common  and  some  in 
a  more  eminent  degree. 

FAULTS   OF    BUSINESS. 

The  business  of  the  land  has  also  certain  vices  of  its 
own ;  it  does  not  lead  the  employer  to  help  the  opera- 
tive as  a  man ;  only  to  use  him  as  a  tool,  merely,  for 
industrial  purposes.  The  average  merchant  cares  little 
whether  his  ship  brings  cloth  and  cotton  or  opium 
and  rum.  The  average  capitalist  does  not  wish 
the  stock  of  his  manufacturing  company  di- 
vided into  small  shares,  so  that  the  opera- 
tives can  invest  their  savings  therein,  and  have  a  por- 
tion of  the  large  dividends  of  the  rich. 

FAULTS    OF    THE    PRESS. 

"  The  press  also  has  certain  vices  of  its  own.  It 
represents  only  the  public  opinion  of  the  time.  Of  all 
literature,  the  newspapers  come  most  into  contact  with 
men — they  are  the  literature  of  the  people,  and  they 
have,  besides  the  general  vices  of  our  politics,  still  the 
special  faults  of  the  particular  party  for  which  they 
are  written. 

"  So,  notwithstanding  the  good  influence  of  these  four 
modes  of  national  activity  in  educating  the  grown  men 
of  America,  they  do  not  afford  the  highest  teaching 
which  the  people  require  to  realize  the  idea  of  a  perfect 
free  State.  The  State  does  not  teach  perfect  justice ; 
the  Church  does  neither  teach  that  nor  love  of  truth. 
Business  does  not  teach  perfect  morality;  and  the 
average  literature  which  falls  into  the  hands  of  the 
millions  teaches  men  to  respect  public  opinion  more  than 
absolute  truth. 


absolute  tr 


3:2  ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION. 


THE    SCHOLARS    SHOULD    BE    TAUGHT  TO    CONTROL  THE 
INFLUENCES  OF  PUBLIC  LIFE. 

These  were  the  public  circumstances  of  the  country 
thirty  years  ago,  when  Parker  spoke  those  words;  did 
they  since,  in  an  essential  way,  change?  if  this  question 
cannot  be  answered  in  the  affirmative,  the  child  ought  to 
be  enabled  in  the  school  to  control  those  influences  of 
public  life,  otherwise  it  will  not  be  efficient  to  maintain  its 
strength  against  the  new  forces  which  it  will  meet.  It 
is  the  concern  of  the  school-teacher  to  give  to  the  child 
such  a  development  of  its  faculties,  and  to  impart  to  it- 
such  a  fund  of  previous  knowledge  that,  if  grown  up,  it 
can  secure  the  influence  of  those  four  forces,  increase 
their  usefulness,  resist  their  faults,  imd  in  this  way  con- 
tinue its  education,  and  at  the  same  time,  be  able  to 
choose  one  of  the  four  efficacies  in  order  to  serve  itself 
and  the  State. 

THE  TEACHERS  SHOULD  HAVE  A  HIGHER  CHARACTER 
IN  A  REPUBLIC. 

Under  such  circumstances,  it  is  also  evident  that  the 
ttachers  of  public  schools  should  have  such  a  character 
that  they  could  impart  to  the  children  what  they  most 
want  "when  they  are  grown  up.  In  free  States,  which 
have  to  educate  the  citizens  to  be  free  men,  a  higher 
degree  of  virtue  is  needed,  as  in  schools  of  an  aristo- 
cratic State  or  of  a  hierarchy.  As  the  teacher  cannot 
communicate  and  teach  that  which  he  not  possesses, 
and  knows  himself,  it  is  also  demonstrated  that  he  must 
have  possession  of  that  higher  virtue  and  knowledge. 

METHOD    OF    TEACHING    ARITHMETIC   AND  ALGEBRA  IN 
OUR    COMMON    SCHOOLS. 

In    arithmetic,  the    principal    task    of  the    teacher  > 


ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  33 

besides  frequent  practice  of  the  scholars,  is,  in  my  opin- 
ion, to  lead  them  to  the  intelligence  of  the  reasons  on 
which  the  rules  of  this  science  rest.  In  order  to  attain 
this  purpose,  he  should  employ  the  synthetic  method, 
that  is :  begin  the  instruction  with  examples  from  which 
he  deduces  the  rules  either  himself,  or  let  them  deduce 
by  a  talented  scholar.  Then  the  rules  are  read  in  the 
text-book,  and  the  examples  are  pointed  out,  which  are 
to  be  solved  for  the  sake  of  practice.  If  an  example 
is  connected  with  great  difficulties,  the  teacher  should 
solve  it,  or  a  similar  one,  before  the  scholars,  either 
entirely,  or  explain  the  way  of  solution.  The  rules 
are  to  be  learned  by  heart.  The  examples  which  the 
scholars  have  done  ought  to  be  reviewed  and  corrected. 
Many  examples  ought  to  be  given,  if  the  rule  is  of 
practical  importance,  or  vary  difficult. 

WRITTEN    ARITHMETIC. 

First  Example — Cancellation  in  the  First  and  Second 
Term  of  Proportions: 

Teacher — (writing  on  the  school  board): 

100  :  1000  =  14  :  x. 

In  which  ratio  is  100  to  1000? 

Scholar — In  the  ratio  of  1-10. 

T. — Which  single  ratio  can  we,  therefore,  put  instead 
of  100  :  1000? 

Sch.— The  ratio  of  1-10. 

T. — We  get  the  same  result  if  we  reduce  both  terms 
of  the  first  ratio.  By  which  number  must  they  be 
reduced  ? 

Sch.— By  100. 

T.     Do  the  same  in  the  following  examples: 

25:    125  =  7:  x. 

357:  123  =  29:  x. 


ox  PUBLIT  EDUCATION. 

(The  scholars  reduce  them:) 

1:  5  =  7:  x.    " 

119:  41  =  29:  x. 

•    T.     Which  terms  may  therefore,  be  reduced,  in  pro- 
portions, mutually? 

Sch. — The  first  and  the  second. 

Second  example. 

Statement  of  compound  proportions. 

1.  example.  If  15  workmen,  in  3  weeks,  earn  400 
dollars;  how  much  can  20  workmen  earn  in  4  nccks^ 

Statement. 

Let  us  first  compute,  how  much  20  workmen  earn  in 
3  weeks? 

15:  20  =  400:  x. 

Preliminary  answer:  x  dollars. — Xext  we  must  see, 
how  much  the  same  men  will  gain  in  4  weeks. 

3:  4  =  x:  y. 

Let  us,  in  these  2  proportions,  x  cancel  against  x; 
then  we  get: 

15:  20  =  400:  y. 

3  :  4. 

Second  example. 

If  10  men,  who  work  every  day  10  hours,  make  in  4 
weeks,a  ditch  200  ft.  long;  in  how  many  weeks  can  6 
men,  who  work  twelve  hours  every  day,  finish  a  ditch, 
300  ft.  long? 

Statement. 

6:  10  =  4:x. 

12:  10  =x:  y. 

200:  300  =  y:  z. 

If  the  two  x,  and  the  two  y  are  cancelled,  we  have 
the  fallowing  statement: 

6  :  10  =  4  :  z. 

12  :  10, 


ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION,  35 

200  :  300, 

Rule — In  compound  proportions,  only  the  first  pro- 
portion  is  completely  put  down:  of  the  rest,  only  the 
first  ratio, 

MENTAL     ARITHMETIC. 

Examples  of  mental  arithmetic  are  solved  by  infer- 
ences, and  large  numbers  in  smaller  ones  divided- 
Often  we  reason  from  a  higher  number  to  unity,  and 
then,  from  unity  to  a  required  number. 

1.  Example.     If  16  horses  consume    128  bushels  of 
oats  in  50  days,  how  many  bushels  will  5  horses  consume 
in  90  days? 

Solution — If  16  horses  consume  128  bushels,  1  horse 
will  consume  8  bushels  in  50  days,  and  5  horses  con- 
sume 40  bushels,  and  in  1  day  40-50  =  4-5  of  a  bushel, 
and  in  90  days,  4-5x90  =  72  bushels, 

2.  Example.     What  is  the  interest  of  12oH  dollars, 
at  4  per  cent,  in  5£  years? 

Sol.— The  interest  of  $1000  in  one  year  is      $  40,00 

200  «  8.00 

50  "  2.00 

The  interest  of  $1250  in  1  year, $50.00 

$1250  in  5  years  -    -   -  -  -  -  -4250.00 

$1250  in  £  year;  50-2       $25.00 

$1250  in  5|  years $275.00 

"  $1  in  1  year,  one  twentieth  of  a  dollar, 

"  $^  in  1  year,  one  fiftieth  of  a  dollar, 

u  three  half  dollars  in  1  year  three-fiftieths 

of  a  dollar. 
"  three  half  dollars  in  ^  year,  three  one- 

hundredth^  of  a  dollar. 

4<  three  halves  of  a  dollar  in  eleven  halves 

of  a  year,  thirty-three  one-hundredths  of  a  dollar. 


OX    PUBLIC    EDUCATION. 


Consequently,  the  interest  of    $1251|    in 
$275  thirty-three  dne-hundredths  =  $275.33. 


year 


(1.)       X-  15:=20. 


ALGEBRA. 


; 

x      =35;  for  equal  quantities  added  to  equal 
ones,  give  equal  sums. 

Rule.  An  equation  is  cleared  of  a  negative  quantity, 
by  adding  on  both  of  its  sides,  the  same  quantity  with 
the  positive  sign. 

(2.)  x*io=2o:  *-y 

-15=-  15. 


x— 5.  for  equal  quantities  subtracted  from  equal 
ones,  give  equal  remainders. 

Rule.  An  equation  is  cleared  of  a  positive  quantity, 
if,  on  both  sides,  the  same  quantity  with  the  negative 
sign  is  added. 

Both  rules  reduced  to  one: 

An  equation  is  cleared  from  positive  and  negative 
quantities,  if  they  are  transposed,  with  the  opposite  signs 
to  opposite  sides. 

(30      x  _ 

5 
x 

— '*  5—3  x  5 
5 

x     =15;     For  if  equal  quantities  are  mul- 
tiplied with  equal  ones,  the  products  are  equal. 

Rule.     The  unknown  quantity  is  cleared  from  its  de- 


ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  37 


nominator,  if  the  whole  equation  is  multiplied  by  it. 
(4.)     5  xr=15 

(5  x:  5)=(15  :  5) 


x       i=  3;  for  if  equal  quantities  are  divided 
by  equal  ones,  the  quotients  are  equal.  | 

Rule.     The  unknown  quantity  is  cleared  from  its  co- 
efficient, by  dividing  the  whole  equation  by  it. 
(5.)     4  x  +  3  x— 50 
7  x—  50  " 

x    =  50 

—  =71-7 

7 
4  x-3  x=50 

x=:  50 
4x  =  50f  3x 
4  x-3  x=50 
x    =50 

Rule.  If  x  in  several  members  of  the  equation 
occurs,  unite  them  into  one  number.  If  these  numbers 
are  on  both  sides  of  the  equation,  transpose  them  all 
first  to  one  side. 

(6.)     —  x  =  —  20 
(-x)  x  (—!)=(— 20)  x  (-1) 


x=  20;  for  if  equal  quantities  are  multiplied 
with  equal  ones,  the  products  are  equal. 

Rule.  If  both  sides  of  the  equation  are  negative,  they 
are  made  positive,  by  multiplying  all  members  of  the 
equation  with  — 1. 

(7.)     Mixed  examples. 

(A)     5  x  f  20  —3  =  40. 

5  x  f  17=40. 


38  ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION. 


5  x  =  23. 
x=23-5=4  3-5. 

(B.)     Three-twentieths  of  x—  30=  8  . 
3  x—  600—  160. 

3  x=760. 
x=253  and  1-3 

(C.)     x  t  5-6  of  x=24. 

6  x  +  5  x=144. 
11  x=144. 
x=13  and  1-11. 

(D.)     3  *  (15-x)=120. 

2 

6  x  +  15—  x=240. 
5  x=225. 
*=45. 

(E.)     44xfifths—  (2  f  x)8=12. 
44  x  fifths—  (16  f  8x)=12. 
44  x  fifths  —16—8  x  =  12. 
44  x—  80—  40  x=60 

4  x=140. 


HENRY  PESTALOZZl's  METHOD  OF   TEACHING. 
HIS   METHOD  IN    GENERAL. 

The  purpose  of  Pestalozzi's  method  was  to  simplify 
the  instruction  of  all  branches  of  teaching  so  much  that 
every  father,  of  an  average  culture7shoulcl  be  enabled  to 
teach  his  children  himself,  and  to  make  schools  for  the 
first  elements  of  instruction  almost  unnecessary.  The 
instruction  of  children  by  able  minded  schoolmates  cor- 
responded also  with  this  purpose,  for,  in  this  way,  am- 
bition was  excited,  and  mutual  affection  and  benevolence 
of  the  children  was  fostered.  He  did  not  aim  to  ad- 
vance his  pupils  very  far  in  spelling^  reading  and  writing, 


rriJLIC    EDUCATION.  *d 

but  to  develop  their  mental  faculties  by  these*  exercise1.-, 
At  the  same  time  he  endeavored  to  lay  in  their  minds 
the  foundations  of  honesty  and  righteousness.  He  said 
that  human  nature  is  subjected  to  the  same  laws,  by 
which  Nature  in  general,  develops  her  forces.  All 
instruction  should  be  imparted  according  to  these  laws, 
These  laws  are  the  following:  Learn  to  regulate  your 
instruction  by  degrees,  and  moreover,  by  jsmall  degrees. 
Connect  all  essential  points  which  belong  to  each  other 
in  your  mind  so  as  they  are  connected  in  nature.  In- 
crease the  impressions  of  important  objects  by  making 
several  senses  impressions  upon  the  mind  of  the  pupil. 
Therefore  illustrated  readers,  maps  in  geography,  models 
in  geometry,  and  real  plants  in  botany,  are  necessary, 
Commenius  realized  already  this  principle  in  his 
Orbis  Pictus.  For  that  reason  Pestalozzi  appreciated  so 
much  the  intuitive  instruction.  He  says:  If  I  ask  my- 
self what  I  have  accomplished  in  the  sphere  of  instruct- 
ion, I  find  that  I  established  "intuition"  as  the  foundation 
of  all  knowledge.  But  the  intuition  must  not  be  a 
passive  looking-on,  to  the  contrary,  it  should  be  an 
active  effort.  The  child  must  from  its  birth,  be  exer- 
cised in  attention  ,  in  correct  observations,  in  the  distinction 
of  casual  from  essential  marks,  and  guarded  against  a 
playful  glancing.  From  the  intuition  of  a  thing  pass  to 
its  name,  from  this  to  the  statement  of  its  qualities, 
finally,  the  definition  is  developed  from  the  clear 
description.  Definitions  without  intuitions  are  ground- 
less. 


The  three  common  forms  of  all  objects  are:  number, 
form  and  language,  and  the  mental  force  of  the  scholar 
should  be  developed  by  them.  He  should  learn  to  iix 


40  OX    PUBLIC    EDUCATION. 


his  eyes  on  every  object  as  an  unity,  to  know  its  measure 
and  proportions,  that  is:  its  form,  and  to  learn  its  name. 
These  are  the  three  parts  of  elementary  instruction. 
Let  us  hear  what  Pestalozzi  has  to  say  on  each  of  them. 
1.  Language. — Among  the  branches  of  language  he 
ranks  the  doctrine  of  sounds,  words  and  grammar.  The 
doctrine  of  sounds  comprises  two  parts,  the  sounds  of 
language,  and  of  tones.  It  is  important  that  the  child 
gets  acquainted  with  the  sounds  of  language  in  their 
full  content,  and  as  early  as  possible.  This  knowled  ge 
ought  to  be  finished  before  the  faculty  of  their  pronun- 
ciation is  cultivated;  and  the  faculty  to  repeat  them 
after  the  teacher,  should  be  finished  before  the  for  ms  of 
the  letters  in  the  Primer  are  put  before  his  eyes,  and  the 
reading  exercises  are  begun.  Therefore,  the  sounds  of 
tha  Primer  should  be  conveyed  to  the  ears  of  the  child 
in  the  cradle  and  by  repeating  them  frequently  deeply 
impressed  to  the  memory,  even  before  it  is  able  to  pro- 
nounce a  single  letter.  The  doctrine  of  vocables  (names) 
is  taught  by  communicating  the  names  of  the  most  im- 
portant objects  of  the  world,  in  all  branches  of  natural 
science,  of  history  and  geography,  of  professional  em- 
ployments to  the  child.  These  series  of  vocables  are  to 
him  imparted  merely  as  practice  in  reading,  immediately 
after  it  has  finished  the  spelling  book.  The  grammar 
is  to  lead  the  pupil  from  dim  intuitions  to  distinct  con- 
ceptions, which  is  done  by  explaining  the  syntactic  rela- 
tions of  words  and  sentences. 

2.  Form — Concerning  the  form  of  objects,  the 
eye-sight  of  the  children  must  be  exercised,  the 
conscience  of  their  relations  elevated,  and  by  draw- 
ing a  skill  effected  to  represent  them  in  an  equal 
or  similar  manner.  Branches  of  the  form  are 
surveying,  drawing  and  penmanship.  As  far 


ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  41 


as  to  surveying,-^  the  child  is  first  taught  the  straight 
line,  then  the  difference  between  horizontal,  perpen- 
dicular, oblique  and  'parallel  lines;  besides  the  different 
kinds  of  angles,  triangles,  quadrangles,  polygons  etc. 
By  the  art  of  drawing  it  should  acquire  the  ability  to 
imagine  and  accurately  to  imitate  the  outline  and  pe- 
culiar marks  of  objects.  < 

3.  Number. — The  number  is  the  foundation  of  arith- 
metic. First  the  child  should  acquire  the  con- 
ception of  one  till  to  ten  by  definite  mtuitioiis.  To 
this  end  the  generally  known  frame  of  reckon- 
ing with  its  ten  balk  is  fitted.  By  it  the  children 
ought  also  to  learn  the  difference  between  greater 
and  smaller  numbers  etc. 

ABILITIES. 

Man  wants,  besides  intelligence  and  knowledge,  such 
abilities  which  procreate  a  pure  conscience  and  are 
necessary  for  an  enobled  heart.  Pestalozzi  says:  "Knowl- 
edge, without  moral  abilities,  is  perhaps  the  most  terrible 
gift  a  hostile  genius  can  grant  to  an  age."  As  the 
formation  of  intellect  and  art  presupposes  a  gradual 
progress  in  the  means  which  are  necessary  to  this  formation 
thus  the  culture  of  the  forces  which  tlie  moral 
abilities  suppose  rests  on  general  rules  by  which  the 
children  could  be  trained  in  a  series  of  exercises  which 
proceed  from  the  plainest  to  the  most  complicated  pnes. 
The  plainest  are:  to  strike,  carry,  throw,  pushj 'haul, 
turn,  wrestle,  brandish  etc.  But  the  graduation  of 
these  exercises  (says  Pestalozzi)  is,  in  our  common  school?, 
a  Bohemian  village  (an  unknown  thing),  we  have  only 
spelling  schools,  penmanship  schools,  religious  schools, 
but  not  schools  of  humanity."  Hereby  Pestalozzi  pro- 
mulgated the  problems  of  education  in  future  times. 


42  OX    PUBLIC    EDUCATION 


He  said,  in  this  sense,  still  as  an  octogenarian:  "  It  is 
necessary  to  form  the  children  from  the  cradle  for  the 
discontinued  use  of  their  forces  and  faculties,  to  animate 
their  activity,  and  to  transform  a  persevering  exertion 
and  dexterity  in  the  daily  requisites  of  their  professional 
life  into  their  second  nature.  The  child  must  already 
be  invited  to  a  beneficial  activity.  The  older  child, 
instead  to  carry  it  around  in  its  arms,  disdainfully,  plays 
with  it.  The  child  will  try,  itself,  several  things,  and 
enjoy  the  changes  it  can  produce  by  its  own  force. — Even 
the  mother  ought  to  teach  the  child  religion.  Never- 
theless Pestalozzi  was  called  an  infidel,  because  he  did 
not  like  to  have  taught  all  the  religious  nonsense  of  his 
age. 

EFFECTS  OF  THE  EDUCATIONAL  EFFORTS  OF  PESTALOZZI. 

Pestalozzi  was  for  the  reforms  of  the  common  schools, 
that  what  Martin  Luther  was  for  those  in  Church. 
His  principles  were  first  applied  to  the  elementary  bran- 
ches of  the  common  school,  viz.,  language,  form  and 
number.  In  geometry  the  old  method  of  Euclides  was 
discarded.  Arithmetic  too,  was  reformed,  though  the 
school-masters,  who  knew  only  to  operate  with  those 
books  of  arithmetic  which  were  established  by  old 
custom,  struggled  against  the  witcheries  of  Pestalozzi, 
and  several  parishes  in  the  country  protested.  Eminent 
pedagogues  continued  the  work  commenced  by  Pesta- 
lozzi, e.  g.  Ramsauer.  a  great  drawing-teacher,  and  edu- 
cator of  young  princes;  Stern,  director  of  the  normal 
school  in  Carlsruhe;  linguist  Graff;  Hientsch,  director 
of  the  normal  school  in  Potsdam,  the  geographer  Carl 
Hitter;  Zeller,  reformer  of  the  schools  in  Wurtemberg 
and  Prussia;  George  Nageli,  author  of  a  singing  theory 
according  to  Pestalozzi's  principles  etc.  Pestalozzi 


\}N    PUBLIC    EDUCATION,  43 

exerted  still  a  greater  influence  on  theory  and  practise  cl' 
pedagogy  in  general,  than  on  single  branches  of  instruct- 
ion. The  organic  conjunction  of  education  and  instruct- 
ion, the  application  of  the  intuitive  instruction  to  the 
.first  development  of  the  infantile  mind  is  the  spirit  of 
Pestalozzi  which  outlived  him  and  still  continues  to 
work.  The  material  of  instruction  should  develop  all 
faculties  of  the  pupil.  Finally  Pestalozzi's  principles 
of  method,  to  proceed  from  the  near  to  the  distant 
objects,  from  the  easy  to  the  difficult  matters  were  also 
adopted,  and  in  part  carried  into  effect,  but  are  yet  far 
from  being  generally  applied. 

WRITINGS  OF    H.  PESTALOZZI. 

They  can  be,  here,  only  shortly  mentioned,  excepted 
the  pedagogic  novels  of  which  some  fuller  details  will  be 
given. 

EVENING-HOURS  OF  A  SETTLER, 

The  first  writing  of  consequence,  published  by  Pesta- 
lozzi, were  the  evening-hours  of  a  settler.  The  seeds  of 
his  future  pedagogy  are  spread  in  it,  as  it  appears  from 
the  following  passage;  "Early  school  training  which  is 
not  based  on  civilization  of  man  guides  astray. 
General  raising  of  the  inner  forces  of  human  nature 
to  pure  human  wisdom  is  the  general  pur  pose  of  culture, 
even  of  the  lowest  men.  The  artificial  path  of  the 
school  wfrich  everywhere  foreruns  the  awaiting,  slow 
nature,  changes  man  iu  artificial  glitter  which  not 
satisfies  but  times  like  our  century." 

LIENHARD  AND  GERTRUI). 

The  year  after  this  book,  the  pedagogic  novel  "Lien- 
hard  and  Gertrud,  a  book  for  the  people^"  made  its  ap- 
pearance. It  deserved  its  name.  It  was  celebrated  in 


ON   PUBLIC   EDUCATION. 


whole  Europe,  though  Pestalozzi  had  composed  It 
in  a  few  weeks,  and  could  not  tell  himself  why 
he  had  succeeded  so  well.  He  would,  as  he  stated, 
only  narrate  what  he  had  seen  himself,  and  1  how  he 
had  heard  the  people  thinking  and  feeling.  He 
represents,  in  this  work,  u  parish  which  its  bailiff 
had  reduced,  by  meanness,  to  the  lowest  condition, 
and  a  mason  impoverished  thereby,  at '  the  same  time, 
who  is  only  saved  from  ruin  by  his  excellent,  honest  and 
prudent  wife,  Gertrud,  and  by  the  assistance  of  a  clergy-  ' 
man.  The  book  describes,  with  thrilling  truthfulness, 
the  mischievous  circumstances  of  the  lower  classes  of 
the  people,  but  shows  also,  the  first  time,  how  decisive 
the  influence  is  which  a  mother  exerts  upon  the  educat- 
ion of  the  children,  and  how  she  lays  by  her  impressions, 
the  foundation  of  true  or  perverse,  of  natural  or  un- 
natnral  culture  of  man.  The  continuation  of  the 
history  of  this  work  belongs  to  the  biography  of  Pesta- 
lozzi, and  is  narrated  therein  (  section  of  historical  es- 
says.) 

CHRISTOPHER    AND    ELSE. 

Soon  after,  his  second  pedagogic  novel,  Christopher 
and  Else  (Christopher  and  Lizzy,)made  its  appearance. 
An  honest  father,  who  was  one  of  the  most  wealthy  men 
in  the  village,  had  happened  to  see  the  book  "Lienhard 
and  Gertrud",  and  after  having  read  and  put  it  upon  the 
shelt  to  other  books,  he  resolved  to  repeat  its  lecture 
with  his  inmates,  during  some  evenings  of  the  winter. 
His  wife,  Else,  his\  brother,  his  children  and  maid-ser- 
vants were  always  present  during  these  hours,  occupied 
with  some  rural  wprk, .  and  every  one  spoke  freely  all 
what  the  bookj  spggested  to  his  mind.  Pestalozzi 
introduced  the  book  with  ^theJse  words:  "Reader!  This 
.book  is  an  .attempt  to  write  a  text-feook  for  the  u<*e  of 


ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  45 


the  dwelling-room.  Purpose  and  tendency  of  all  per- 
sons, introduced  in  it,  is  only  some  doctrine  and  instruct- 
ion to  which,  in  this  book,  all,  even  the  costume,  is 
sacrificed."  But  the  book  did  not  come  at  all  into  the 
hands  of  the  public, — "for"  (says  Pestalo.zzi)  "the spirit 
which,  with  regard  to  pedagogicy,  rules  in  my  next 
environs,  was  too  much  opposed  to  its  meaning.  The 
number  of  the  school  and  text-books  was  infinitely  in- 
creased: my  book  did  not  teach  the  people  anything  of 
this  kind;  it  only  invited  and  animated  that  in  them 
which  before-hand  lay  in  them."  The  book  had  not  the 
success  which  Pestalozzi  looked  for;  the  living  action  was 
missing  in  it.  Its  long  conversations  were  tiresome; 
and  the  people  of  high  arid  noble  rank  felt  themselves 
offended,  when  Pestalozzi  showed  that  there  could  not 
be  tyrants  of  villages,  if  they  had  not  their  models  in 
in  the  higher  castes  of  the  cities.  Many  years  later  an 
other  great  work  of  Pestalozzi  was  published:  "Investi- 
gations of  the  course  of  nature  in  the  development  of  man- 
kind," Inspired  by  the  sentiments  of  J.  J.  Rousseau,  and 
by  the  ideas  of  Fichte,  he  tried  in  it  to  harmonize  the 
vigorous  feelings  of  his  heart  and  his  notions  of  civil 
right  and  morals,  and  to  mark  the  place  which  is  due 
to  a  well  conducted  education  in  the  life  of  the  people 
and  state. 

HOW  GERTRUD  TEACHES  HER  CHILDREN, 

After  some  years  appeared  his  highly  praised  work, 
"How  Gertrud  teaches  her  children."  In  this  book 
Pestalozzi  gives  instruction  to  mothers  how  to  teach 
themselves  their  children.  Two  years  later  followed, 

1  "The  book  of  mothers,"  or  inforniation  of  mothers  to 
teach  their  children  to  observe  and  to  speak.  The  first 
object  which  the  mother  uses  for  this  purpose  is  the  body 

-  of  the  child  with  its  limbs.     The  series  of  other  writings 


46  ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION. 

which  after  those  mentioned  here,  still  followed  during 
the  long  course  of  life  of  Pestalozzi  was  concluded  by 
his  "Swan-song"  as  he  called  the  last  of  them.  He 
collects  in  it  his  ideas  once  more,  viz.,  that  instruction 
must  be  the  development  of  the  child  into  a  human  be- 
ing; that  moral  ability  is  more  worth  than  simple 
knowledge;  and  that  every,  even  the  highest,  mental 
culture  ought  to  be  rested  on  the  same  foundation. 

For  the  biography  of  Henry  Pestalozzi.  See  Section  of 
historical  essays. 

A  CONTRIBUTION  ON  DISCIPLINE,  IN  PICTURES 
FROM  LIFE. 

Salzman,  one  of  the  most  accomplished  German 
pedagogues  of  the  last  century,  sketches  in  one  of  his 
works,  a  species  of  white  slaves  of  Germany,  and  repre- 
sents their  unhappy  fate  in  an  affecting  manner.  The 
children  and  scholars  of  his  age  are  the  slaves  he  has 
in  view.  True,  his  book  appeared  about  one  hundred 
years  ago.  Times,  since,  turned  milder,  more  humane, 
did  they  not?  Children  are,  at  home  and  school,  not 
more  abused,  like  slaves  (?)  O  no!  At  least,  I  hope  so. 

I  wish  to  represent,  in  the  following  lines,  the  chapter 
of  school  discipline  for  parents  and  teachers  who  are  in- 
terested for  education  and  instruction,  in  some  pictures 
I  selected  from  the  sphere  of  my  experience.  The 
originals  of  them  can  be  found  by  the  kind  reader 
everywhere;  but  he  would  go  the  wrong  way,  if  he 
would  look  for  them  in  my  neighborhood.  I  dont  in- 
tend to  write  a  satire  or  a  controverse.  Now  let  us  go 
on!  Principal  A. — was  declared,  by  the  unanimous 
judgment  of  his  town,  a  thoroughly  learned  teacher; 
but  the  opinions  were  divided  in  regard  to  his  dicipline. 
Sometimes  he  tied  a  scholar  to  a  bank,  in  order  that  he 


ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION,  47 


could  chastise  him  more  severely,  or  he  hurled  a  piece 
of  chalk  at  his  skull  (endangering,  thereby,  his  eyes,) 
or  he  thrashed  without  mercy,  his  back-side  till  it  turn- 
ed blue  and  yellow.  This  great  pedagogue  was,  on  ac- 
count of  his  merits  in  school-concerns,  selected  as  school- 
superintendent. 

When  principal  B,  resigned  his  office,  and  his 
successor  requested  him  to  give  him  some  advice 
how  to  deal  with  his  scholars  regarding  discipline, 
he  pointed  to  a  rawhide  which  lay  on  the  table,  and 
cried:  "That's  the  best  instrument  in  order  to  maintain 
discipline  in  the  school." 

Mr.  D.  passed  for  an  accomplished  dicip- 
linarian.  He  boasted  that  there  was  such  a 
stillness  in  his  school  that  you  could  hear  fall  a 
pin.  The  scholars  must,  half  an  hour  before  the  lessons 
began,  keep  a  silence  of  death.  The  softest  whispering, 
the  least  movement  afforded  them  a  load  of  blows.  A 
boy  eight  years  old,  who  had  not  softly  gone  down 
stairs,  got  a  sound  thrashing,  then,  he  must  kneel,  and 
as  often  as  he  rose,  the  teacher  threw  him  down  on  his 
knees,  and  repeated  the  blows.  Another  scholar,  of 
the  same  age,  was  locked  up,  at  twelve  o'clock,  in  the 
room  of  the  teacher,  where  he  must  remain  kneeling,  at 
least  for  one  hour,  till  that  one  had  taken  his  dinner, 
and  returned  to  school.  This  and  other  similar  ex- 
ecutions had  the  effect  that  the  scholar  already  trembled 
when  the  teacher  entered  the  school-room. 

In  the  school  of  Mr.  E. — those  who  committed  faults  got 
reprimands  at  which  often  quarters  of  an  hour  passed,  and 
which  usually  excited  general  hilarity,  because  they  were 
seasoned  with  wit  and  humorous  sallies,  The  time  of 
the  lesson,  hereby,  passed  unused,  but  in  a  manner  which 
the  scholars  liked  better.  At  the  end  of  every  session, 


48  OX    PITBLIC   I^DLTATIOX. 


every  one  had  to  confess  aloud,  if  and  how  many  times 
he  or  she  had  talked  with  others,  during  the  lesson.  It 
is  doubtful,  if  this  open  confession  of  the  scholars  al- 
ways was  sincere  and  complete. 

Mr.  O. —  used  the  rod  rarely,  and  always 
moderately  and  cautiously.  The  names  of  the 
noisy  and  inattentive  ones  were  daily  set 
down,  and  notice  was  given  to  their  parents  in  the 
monthly  testimonials  of  the  behavior  of  the  culprits. 
He  who  was  marked,  a  day,  with  two  or  more  notes  of 
guiltiness,  got,  at  the  close  of  the  sessions,  some  blows 
with  the  rod  on  the  level  hand.  The  lazy  ones  must, 
partly  copy  their  lessons,  partly  stay  after  school  till 
they  had  learned  them.  By  such  a  method  the  scholars 
were  encouraged  to  be  diligent,  and  affected  with  re- 
spect and  attachment  towards  their  teacher,  They 
were,  on  an  average,  kind-hearted,  obliging,  joyful  and 
happy. 

Mr.  Z. — used  to  celebrate  the  opening  day  of 
his  institute  about  in  this  manner.  He  addressed  his 
scholars  saying:  "That's  a  new  term;  take  care  of  what 
you  are  doing!  Go  lively  to  your  lessons,  as  I  shall 
go  lively  to  punish.  I  shall  not  yield;  it  will  not  avail 
you  to  rob  your  books;  you  will  not  be  able  to  ward  oft 
the  blowrs  you  shall  get.  Well,  let  every  one  go  to  his 
work."  If  this  address  was  finished,  he  came  to  some 
new-comers,  and  told  them  that,  if  they  could  famously 
bite,  he  also  was  a  famous  biter.  Now  he  showed  to 
them  the  rod,  asking  them  what  they  thought  of  it, 
swung  it  through  the  air,  and  stroke  to  every-one  several 
blows,  meanwhile  asking  the  hit  ones:  "Does  it  bite, 
does  it  bite?"  It  is  not  said  by  that,  that  only  the  new- 
beginners  got  these  proofs  of  distiction;  to  the  contrary, 
the  majority  of  scholars  (especially  the  little  ones)  re- 


ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  49 

ceived  the  same  tokens  of  his  attention,  while  he  went 
the  rounds  of  the  school-room.  Half  of  the  scholars 
writhed  and  cried,  before  the  instruction  began.* 

ON  STUDYING    FOREIGN    LANGUAGES. 

A  celebrated  pulpit  orator  concluded  his  sermon 
with  these  words :  "  And  the  United  States  should  have 
but  one  faith  and  one  language."  I  will  ignore  the 
first  clause  of  this  sentence,  but  say  a  few  words  on  the 
second.  It  should  be  desirable  that  we  would,  in  Amer- 
ica, only  speak  one  language ;  we  should  hereby  save 
much  work  and  time.  Some  think  it  to  be  a  high  de- 
gree of  advantage  and  respectability  to  understand  five  or 
six  foreign  languages,  but  is  it  indeed,  of  much  use  if  a 
man  can  express  one  idea  in  five  or  six  different  lan- 
guages? And  especially  what's  the  use  of  the  dead 
languages — Latin,  Greek  and  Hebrew?  Let  the  child 
and  the  student  get  new  notions,  and  intuitions  taken 
from  common  life,  and  from  the  vast  realm  of  nature, 
and  they  will  collect  a  more  precious  treasury  of  knowl- 
edge, than  by  weakening  their  brains  by  the  study  of 
the  declensions  and  conjugations  of  extinct  languages. 
In  my  opinion,  the  Protestant,  and  in  particular  the 
Catholic  gymnasia  in  Europe,  and  even  the  highly  re- 
nowned universities  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  in  Eng- 
land, commit  a  great  mistake  to  occupy  the  student  for  six 
and  more  years  with  the  ancient  languages,  so  much  as 
to  teach  him  to  compose  Latin  verses,  neglecting,  mean- 
while, even  the  mother  tongue.  Still,  the  knowledge 
of  foreign  languages  is  sometimes  necessary  for  mer- 
chants and  other  business  men.  In  the  United  States, 
where  English  is  the  prevalent  tongue,  the  study  of 


Imitated  from  Dickens. 


50  ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION. 

Latin,  French  and  German  is  profitable  to  the  pupil, 
because  so  many  English  words  are  derived  from  these 
languages.  I  wish  to  impart  some  hints  on  the  study  of 
foreign  languages,  first  describing  my  own  proceedingsy 
and  course  of  the  study,  and  then  annexing  a  few  gen- 
eral rules : 

LATIN    AND    GREEK. 

The  first  foreign  language  I  studied  was  Latin.  I 
was  then  a  scholar  of  the  Gymnasium  in  Vienna,  Aus- 
tria, and  11  years  old.  The  first  year  we  had  to  study 
the  rules  of  Latin  grammar.  Four  exercises  in  Ger- 
man were  every  week  dictated,  and  we  must  them  trans- 
late into  Latin.  One  of  them  was  corrected  by  the 
teacher,  and  we  were,  according  to  the  number  of  our 
mistakes,  collocated  in  the  class-room.  Our  ambition 
was  by  this  means  roused.  Besides,  we  had  to  learn, 
every  day,  twenty  vocables,  at  home.  We  had  a  Latin 
Reader,  which  contained  anecdotes,  aphorisms,  etc. 
Every  day  a  week,  except  one  vacation  day,  we  had 
two  hours  Latin.  Second  year :  the  grammar  continued; 
reader — Eutropius.  Third  year:  the  same  as  the  first 
and  second;  reader,  Cornelius  Nepos.  We  began  in 
in  the  lessons  to  speak  Latin.  Fourth  year: 
Study  of  the  Latin  Syntax.  Besides,  the  Greek  Gram- 
mar was  begun.  Most  time  was  devoted  to  the  con- 
jugation of  the  Greek  verbs.  Latin  speaking  was  in 
this  and  the  following  years  continued.  In  the  fifth 
year  we  studied  the  rules  of  Latin  poetry,  and  read 
fragments  of  Horace,  Virgil  and  other  Latin  poets. 
Sixth  year:  Rhetoric,  Reading:  Some  orations  of  Cicero, 
parts  of  Sallustius,  Livius,  etc.  Later  when  I  was  a 
grown  man,  a  husband  and  public  teacher  in  Zurich, 
Switzerland,  I  studied  more  parts  of  Cicero,  and  all 


ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  51 


works  of  Virgil  and  Horace;  aud  in  Greek:  Memora- 
bilia of  Socrates,  some  songs  of  the  Iliad,  and  Xenophon's 
life  of  Cyrus.  During  this  period  of  my  life,  I  spoke 
Latin,  whenever  there  was  an  opportunity,  and  instruct- 
ed many  scholars  in  this  language,  the  last  in  California, 
in  1887,  who  was  employed  in  a  drug  store.  First  he 
had  to  study  the  third  declension,  and  the  first  con- 
jugation, then  I  explained  to  him  the  Latin  Reader  of 
Harkness,  and  after  this,  some  biographies  of  Corneilus 
Nepos.  After  having  taken  thirty  lessons  he  was  able 
to  submit  to  a  formal  examination,  and  received  the 
diploma  of  a  druggist. 

FRENCH. 

In  French  I  took  private  lessons  from  the  public  pro- 
fessor of  the  French  language,  in  the  University  of 
Vienna.  He  explained  the  rules  of  the  grammar, 
translated  the  exercises,  but  did  not  correct  written  ex- 
ercises of  the  scholars;  he  translated  to  us  also  the 
biographies  of  several  famous  French  scholars.  I  con- 
tinued my  studies  privately,  learned  by  heart  German- 
French  dialogues,  took  my  board  in  the  family  of  a 
French  lady  who  kept  a  French  school,  conversed  in 
French,  wherever  there  was  occasion,  and  read  the 
French  classics.  When  I  was  appointed  public  teacher 
in  Zurich  I  had  besides  other  branches,  also  to  teach 
French.  My  scholars  studied  French  grammar  and  a 
French  Reader:  moreover  the  history  of  Switzerland 
written  in  French  language,  and  learned  to  converse  in 
French.  In  America,  I  taught  French  in  a  Seminary, 
and  boarded  in  a  French  hotel. 

ITALIAN. 
I    studied    also    Italian,   and    gave    lessons    in    that 


52  ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION. 


language,  but  only  a  short  time.     I  explained  to  the 
scholar  the  rules    and   exercises   of  the   grammar;  he 
wrote  the  latter  ones,  and  I  corrected  them. 
SPANISH. 

When  I  was  seventy-two  years  old,  I  learned  Span- 
ish, principally,  from  Fr.  Butler's  excellent  "Spanish 
teacher  and  colloquial  phrase-book.  "The  edition  of  the 
book  swarmed  with  typographical  errors,  which  I  cor- 
rected in  my  copy.  I  studied,  too,  another  grammar, 
entitled  a  new  practical  and  easy  method  of  learning 
the  Spanish  language  after  the  system  of  F.  Ahn."  I 
translated  its  exercises,  and  learned  them  by  heart.  It 
is  very  easy  to  read  Spanish.  I  learned  it  in  one  hour. 
After  having  finished  an  elementary  Spanish  Header,  I 
studied  Spanish  authors.  I  perused  Don  Quijote 
of  Cervantes,  the  master  piece  of  Spanish  literature,  four 
times;  besides  Gil  Bias  de  Santillana,  etc.  I  conversed, 
at  every  opportunity,  with  Spaniards,  though  it  is  difficult 
to  understand  them  well,  because  they  seldom  speak  the 
Castilian  dialect.  I  also  wrote  some  Spanish  letters. 

HEBREW. 

When  a  student  of  the  Lyceum  in  Brunn,  Moravia, 
I  studied  also  Hebrew  which  was  one  of  its  branches, 
but  I  did  not  well  understand  the  Hebrew  grammar, 
nor  the  teachings  of  the  Hebrew  professor.  In  Switzer- 
land I  rehearsed,  and  continued  the  study  of  this 
language,  learned  many  vocables  by  heart,  read  the  five 
books  of  Moses,  several  Psalms,  the  prophet  Isaiah, 
and  wrote  Hebrew  exercises.  The  Rabbi  of  Zurich  su- 
perintended my  pronunciation  of  this  language.  The 
first  examination  to  which  I  was  submitted  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Zurich,  was  a  failure,  but  in  the  second  I 
succeeded.  In  Wisconsin,  I  gave  some  Hebrew  lessons 


ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION,  5  3 


to  two  ministers  of  the  University  of  Galesville,  *where 
I  was  appointed  teacher  of  modern  languages.  The 
Board  of  the  Institute  conferred  on  me  the  title  of 
"professor/5  and  of  A.  M.  (1861.) 

GERMAN. 

In  teaching  the  German  language,  I  followed  this 
method  : 

When  the  scholar  had  learned  to  pronounce  and 
write  the  small  letters  of  the  German  alphabet,  I  ex- 
plained him  the  old  declension  of  nouns,  and  some 
tenses  of  the  auxiliary  verb,  to  be,  and  of  the  regular 
verb,  and  translated  exercises  which  the  scholar  had  to 
write,  and  which  were  corrected  by  me  and  learned  by 
him.  Reading  in  a  reader,  and  speaking  followed 
soon.  He  had  to  learn  by  heart  dialogues  given  on  topics  of 
common  life.  If  the  scholar  reads  German  authors,  he 
will  do  well  to  begin  with  narratives  (e.  g.  Grimm's 
Sagen  and  Mahrchen),  and  comedies,  because  the  style 
of  the  latter  ones  comes  nearest  to  that  which  is  used 
in  daily  conversation.  I  would  not  advise  to  German 
teachers  in  English  institutes  to  read  the  "Niebelungen 
Lied,"  with  his  scholars,  because  this  poem  is  written 
in  an  antiquated  dialect  used  in  the  twelfth  century. 
A  very  good  method  to  learn  German  easily  and  quick, 
is  followed  out  by  Sigmon  Stern  in  his  book:  "Studien 
und  Plauderien,"  New  York. 

But  the  easiest  and  shortest  way  to  learn  a  foreign 
language  is  to  go  to  a  country  where  it  is  spoken  by  the 
inhabitants.  Therefore  Germans  go  to  England  and 
America  in  order  to  learn  English;  Americans  to 


^University    was    since  transformed   into   a   military 
school. 


04  ON    PTBLfC    EDUCATION. 

France  or  Mexico  to  learn  French  or  Spanish. 

GENERAL    RULES. 

After  having  described  my  course  in  studying  foreign 
languages,  I  wish  to  conclude  this  essay  by  proposing^ 
some  general  rules  on  this  topic  to  the  reader  who  wishes 
to  study  those  from  books . 

Translate  the  exercises  of  your  grammar,  and  learn 
them  well  by  heart. 

Learn  many  vocables  and  phrases  by  heart,  for  lan- 
guage is  composed  of  them. 

Recite  with  loud  voice,  in  order  to  accustom  your  ear 
to  the  peculiar  sounds  of  the  strange  tongue. 

Repeat,  again  and  again,  what  you  have  learned. 
"Repetitio  est  mater  studiorum."  (Repetition  is  the 
mother  of  studies.) 

Study  the  lessons  of  your  reader,  and  when  you  have 
finished  it,  read  good  authors  of  the  foreign  languages. 
Study,  especially,  dialogues,  written  in  your  mother 
tongue  and  the  foreign  one. 

,  Many  students  understand  a  foreign  language,  and 
are  also  able  to  write  it,  but  they  cannot  speak  it,  be- 
cause, of  shame  to  be  censured,  they  never  try  to  learn 
to  do  so.  Speak  as  soon  and  as  often  as  you  get  a  chance 
to  speak  the  language  you  learn.  Be  not  afraid  to  be 
ridiculed.  Strangers  are  patient  to  correct  our  blunders, 
when  they  see  that  we  try  to  learn  their  mother-tongue. 
Frenchmen,  in  particular,  are  well  pleased  to  assist  the 
beginner,  by  politely  giving  him  any  assistance  required. 

Compose  in  the  foreign  language;  keep  in  it,  a  journal 
of  your  transactions,  the  weather,  remarkable  events. 
Write  letters  to  your  foreign  acquaintances,  in  their  own 
tongue.  Never  learn  two  foreign  languages  at  the  same 
time;  such  a  task  overcharges  the  brain.  If  you  know 


ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  55 


already  Latin  and  French,  and  learn,  now,  Spanish: 
compare  the  Spanish  vocables  with  similar  English, 
French  and  Latin  ones:  you  will  facilitate  in  this  way, 
the  study  of  the  new  language. 

HOW  I  STUDIED  THE  ENGLISH    LANGUAGE. 

I  was  fifty  years  old  when  I  commenced  to  learn 
English.  My  son,  who  studied  foreign  languages  in 
the  commercial  sshool,  gave  me  the  first  lessons.  In 
Zurich,  where  I  then  lived,  was  an  Episcopal  church. 
I  attended  it  every  Sunday  for  the  sake  of  the  language, 
though  I  understood  but  little  of  the  sermons  of  the 
minister.  An  Englishman  gave  me  English  lessons, 
and  took,  reversely,  German  lessons  from  me.  I  studied 
English  books,  the  English  grammar,  and  gave  Eng- 
lish lessons  to  Germans,  minding  the  proverb:  "Do- 
cendo  discimus,"  (by  teaching  we  are  learning.)  When 
I  emigrated  to  America,  (1852)  I  could  speak  very 
little  English,  and  did  not  understand  those  who  spoke 
to  me.  When  Germans  come  to  America,  they  usually 
settle  among  their  countrymen ;  but  not  so  I,  knowing 
that,  in  order  to  attain  my  purpose,  I  must  converse 
with  Americans.  Most  of  my  neighbors  were  settlers 
from  New  England.  When  in  Gales ville,  Wisconsin, 
appointed  professor  of  modern  languages,  I  gave  to  my 
scholars,  and  others,  lessons  in  German,  French  and 
Hebrew;  in  a  word,  I  embraced  every  opportunity  to 
advance  in  the  knowledge  of  a  language  I  had  resolved 
to  learn.  A  library  was  connected  with  the  University 
where  I  was  teaching.  I  read  all  its  books  which  I 
thought  to  be  worth  while  to  be  read,  for  my  purpose. 
Among  them  was  Macauly's  History  of  England.  I 
read  it  twice. 

After  the  civil  war,  I  was  appointed,  in  the  valley  of 


ON   PUBLIC    EDUCATION'. 


Waumandee,  public-teacher,  for  one  term,  and  after  this, 
again  principal  teacher  in  Sank  City.  As  my  pronun- 
ciation of  the  English  was  defective,  I  asked  and  obtain- 
ed permission  from  the  State  School  Superintendent  to 
continue  teaching,  and  tried  by  all  means  to  improve 
meanwhile,  this  lack  of  my  instruction,  A  fellow- 
teacher  advised  me  to  board,  to  this  end,  with  an  Eng- 
lish family;  but  I  soon  found  out  that  both,  the  husband 
and  especially  his  wife  were  accustomed  like  many  Eng- 
lishmen, to  drop  the  letter  h  where  it  is  the  initial  of  a 
word,  and,  on  the  contrary,  to  prefix  it  before  vowels 
(e.  g.  in  the. vocables  "horse''  and  "us",)  and  therefore, 
I  went  to  another  boarding-house,  the  landlord  of  which 
was  a  canditate  for  the  superintendence  of  the  district 
schools.  He  gave  me  very  profitable  lessons  in  pronun- 
ciation. By  his  instruction,  I  first  learned  to  distin- 
guish the  sound  of  short  I  from  that  of  long  E.  A 
teacher  of  the  academy  in  Sank  City  taught  me  how  to 
form  the  different  sounds  of  the  vowels,  by  gradually 
enlarging  and  lessening  the  opening  of  the  mouth;  and 
another  teacher  showed  me  how  to  pronounce  the  sharp 
and  the  soft  sound  of  th.  I  must  remark  that  my 
knowledge  of  the  German,  Latin  and  French  languages 
which  are  the  foundation  of  the  English,  were  a  great 
help  to  me  in  its  study.  Since  1866  I  was,  for  many 
years  a  public  teacher  in  Milwaukee.  According  to 
the  school-law,  I ;  had  to  submit,  every  year,  to  a  new 
.examination.  Tired  of  such  incessant  drudgery,  I  pre- 
pared for  the  State  teacher's  examination.  I  succeeded 
in  it,  receiving  a  diploma  of  eminent  qualification  for 
life. 

I  need  hardly  to  tell  that  I  continued  to  read 
assiduously  English  literature.  I  read  most  of  the 
classical  authors,  some  of  them  several  times,  e.  g. 


ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  57 

Shakespeare.  For  the  sake  of  pronunciation  I  consult- 
ed Webster's  Dictionary  many  thousand  times.  In 
1887  I  commenced  to  publish  compositions  in  the  Eng- 
lish language,  of  course,  after  they  had  been  reviewed  by 
competent  American  scholars, 

MUSICAL    BUNGLING, 

Translated  from  the  "Milwaukee  Freidenker." 
Against  musical  bungling,  the  "Milwaukee  Frei- 
denker"  imparts  these  remarks:"  While  the  parents  in- 
duce, without  hesitation,  the  family-doctor  to  intercede, 
by  reason  of  health,  for  dispensation  of  their  daughters 
from  some  branch  of  school-instruction,  they  let  them, 
carelessly,  continue  their  lessons  of  music,  and  the  hours 
of  practising  it.  But  it  must  be  noticed  as  an  abuse  of 
the  juvenile  strength,  if  as  much,  or  even  more  time, 
daily,  is  claimed  for  an  object  of  luxury,  like  piano- 
playing,  as  for  school-work.  No  practise  lays  a  higher 
claim  to  the  system  of  nerves,  than  piano-playing.  Many 
a  mother  sacrifices  the  health  of  her  daughter  to  the  idol 
of  music,  to  the  foolish  prejudice  of  fashion  that  piano-play- 
ing is  part  of  mental  culture. 

It  may  safely  be  maintained  that  the  musical 
exercises  at  home  are  more  in  fault  of  the  frailty  and 
nervous  condition  of  many  girls,  than  the  school,  which 
is  often  blamed  for  that  defect.  The  instruction  on 
the  piano  should  not  commence  before  the  twelfth  year. 
Only  entirely  healthy  girls,  endowed  with  musical 
talent  ought  to  cultivate  music — girlswho  can  be 
expected  to  afford,  some  day,  joy  to  their  fellow- 
creatures  by  theirplay.  But  only  ninety  out  of  a 
hundred  girls  who  play  piano,  attain,  after 
many  years  of  pains,  an  agility  which  is  only 
mechanical,  and  far  from  having  an  affinity  with 


58  OX    PUBLIC    EDUCATION 


the  practice  of  art,  is  directly  pernicious  to 
to  the  capacity  for  plain,  pure,  musical  feeling.  It 
is  neither  necessary  nor  desirable  that  we  have  many 
piano-players  of  middle  or  bad  quality,  but  it  is  necess- 
ary that  our  girls  conserve  their  physical  and  mental 
health. 

OX  THE  STUDY  OF  THE  GERMAN  LANGUAGE,   TIME 
WHEN  THE  GERMAN  LANGUAGE  WAS  NEGLECTED. 

There  was  a  time  (which  has  passed  not  long  ago) 
when  in  America,  the  German  was,  generally,  little  re- 
spected, even  frequently  with  the  nickname  "Dutchman''* 
stigmatized'  and,  as  a  matter  of  course,  also  his  mother- 
tongue  was-  ridiculed  and  despised.  But,  since  the 
Gallo-German  war,  the  American  changed  his  opinion 
concerning  the  Germans  and  their  language;  for  they 
won  his  respect  by  the  splendid  victories  of  their  country- 
men in  France.  Since  that  memorable  war  is  finished, 
we  see  the  German  language  not  only  received  among 
the  branches  of  instruction  in  higher  institutes,,  of  the 
United  States,  but  even  introduced  into  many  common 
schools. 

REASOXS    WHY    GERMAX     IS    WORTHY     TO    BE   STUDIED. 

It  deserves  this  acknowledgment  from  the  part  of 
Americans,  and  should  nowhere  be  missed  in  the  series 
of  foreign  languages,  which  in  the  higher  schools  of.  the 
United  States  are  studied,  and  even  not  in  the  common 
schools  of  cities,  as  well  as  in  such  parts  of  the  country 
in  which  the  Germans  form  a  considerable  factor  of  the 
population,  which,  perhaps,  so  much  as  outweighs  that 
of  the  natives.  The  reasons  on  which  this  opinion 
rests,  are  so  manifest  and  palpable  that  they  cannot 
escape  a  somewhat  attentive  observer,  and  to  be 


sure, 


ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  59 


it  is  not  national  self-conceit   which — opposite  to   the 
American — stimulates  me  to  speak  it. 

The  German  element  of  the  population  amounts  in  the 
United  States,  probably,  to  eight  million  men,  therefore 
about  to  the  seventh  part  of  the  total  number  of  in- 
habitants. Why,  such  an  important  quantity  of  them 
must  not  be  permitted  in  a  country  which  likes  to  be 
called  the  freest  and  most  civilized  on  earth,  to  conserve, 
to  cultivate  and  bequeath  their  mother-tongue  to  their 
decendents?  The  immigration  from  Germany  increases 
in  colossal  dimensions.  German  parents  expect  by 
right  that  their  children,  besides  the  language  of  the 
country,  learn  also  their  own.  Or  can  the  hatred  of 
our  Anglo-American  citizens  towards  the  Germans  be 
so  intense  that  their  politics  will  aim  to  extirpate  their 
native  language,  as  the  Romans  tried  to  do  in  ancient 
Germany?  Such  a  trial  would  certainly  miscarry,  like 
that  of  Varus  in  the  forests  of  Germania.  In  the 
larger  towns  in  the  country,  the  knowledge,  of 
both  languages,  the  English  and  German,  is  in- 
dispensable for  the  trading  classes  of  the  people. 
For  that  reason,  the  American,  whose  attention 
is  principally  directed  to  practical  purposes,  fre- 
quently learns  our  language,  and  permits  his  children 
to  participate  of  the  instruction  in  this  language  which 
in  our  public  schools  is  imparted.  The  German  language 
is  spoken  by  a  civilized  nation,  and,  therefore  occupies 
as  high  an  order  as  the  English,  French  and  Italian; 
nay,  it  deserves  more  attention  than  Latin  and  Greek,  for 
it  is  not  dead  like  them; — it  is  spoken  by  sixty-millions: 
or  more  men;  it  possesses  a  rich  store  of  vocables;  it 
is  an  original  language,  not  derived,  like  the  romance- 
languages,  Italian  French  and  Spanish,  from  an  extinct 
one,  nor  composed  like  the  English,  from  several  other 


60  ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION. 


ones.  It  excells  all  modern  languages  by  the  precision 
and  perfection  of  its  grammatical  forms,  and  if  it  is 
not  as  soft  and  sonorous  as  the  Italian  and  Spanish,  it 
compensates  this  defect  by  vigor  and  energy  of  ex- 
pression. It  possesses,  in  all  departments  of  science, 
ingenious  works  which  boldly  may  be  placed  at  the  side 
of  the  most  successful  and  accomplished  ones  in  the 
literature  of  any  nation  on  earth.  Especially,  it  can 
compete  with  the  works  of  the  modern  English  literature. 

WHICH    PARTS    OF   THE    GERMAN    SHOULD   BE    TAUGHT. 

Parts  of  the  German  which  ought  to  be  taught  are : 
reading,  writing,  orthography,  grammar,  composition, 
translation  from  English  into  German  and  inversely 
in  higher  institutes  besides,  history  of  German  litera- 
ture. Under  these  circumstances,  every  German  child 
should  learn  to  read  fluently  and  correctly.  In  order 
to  obtain  this  design,  more  variety  in  the  text-books  is 
necessary.  The  English  readers  direct  us,  in  that,  to 
the  right  path.  In  most  of  the  common  schools  there 
are,  besides  the  Primer,  five  or  six  Readers,  while 
only  three,  at  the  most  four  German  Readers  are 
used.  They  are  also  not  equal  to  the  English 
ones,  in  regard  to  the  quantity  of  their  contents. 
What  follows  from  this  defect?  The  scholars  who 
must  use  the  same  book  two  years  or  longer,  finally 
take  no  more  interest  in  reading  it,  and  get  tired  of 
the  study  of  their  native  language. 

SOME  GERMANS  ARE  ASHAMED  OF  THEIR  MOTHER-TONGUE 

In  conclusion,  I  wish  to  remark  one  thing  more.  It 
happens  not  seldom  among  us  that  young  Germans  are 
ashamed  of  their  native  language,  and  deny  its  know- 
ledge when  they  converse  with  Americans.  If  this  ex- 


ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION  61 


ample  is  generally  imitated  by  the  growing  German 
youth,  soon  no  more  Germans  will  be  found  in  America. 
But  that  must  not  happen.  May  the  example  of  the 
ancient  Greeks  shine  before  the  German  Americans! 
When  many  Greeks  were  necessitated  to  leave  their 
country,  they  shipped  to  Asia-Minor,  where  they  trans- 
planted arts,  sciences  and  their  native  language.  Among 
the  celebrated  written  works  which  they  created  there, 
I  mention  only  the  I  lias  and  the  Odyessa,  these  two 
great  epic  poems  of  Homer,  the  most  eminent  poet  of 
antiquity.  Even  so  it  can  be  hoped  that  the  transplant- 
ed stem  of  the  German  language  will,  in  the  new  country, 
produce  vigorous  branches  and  fine  blossoms,  and  that 
still  a  great  time  to  come  is  reserved  to  it. 

SECTARIAN     DOCTRINES     IN     THE     READERS     OF     OUR 
PUBLIC    SCHOOLS. 

Sectarian  doctrines  ought  to  be  excluded  from  our 
public  schools ;  but  it  is  not  so :  even  there  where  the 
school  law  forbids  them,  they  are  introduced  in  the 
Readers.  Most  of  the  Readers  are  tainted  with  the  pecu- 
liar hue  of  Christian  superstition. 

MCGUFFEY'S  READERS. 

Take,  for  instance,  McGuffey's  readers,  which  proba- 
ably  are  more  frequently  used  than  any  others.  They 
represent  the  biblical  view  of  the  universe,  and  the 
Christian  dogmas  most  decidedly.  In  order  not  to 
claim  too  much  the  patience  of  my  kind  readers,  I  will  re- 
view only  the  fourth  and  fifth  books  of  the  whole  series. 

Fourth  Reader. — The  fourth  reader  of  McGuffey 
contains  eighty  numbers,  of  which  thirteen — therefore 
sixteen  per  cent —  are  dyed  with  sectarian  colors.  In 
the  fifth  piece  the  Sabbath  bell  calls  the  child  to  church. 


62  ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION. 


in  order  to  kneel  there  at  the  altar.  Numbers  twelve 
and  thirteen  relate  the  ancient  myth  of  the  Egyptian 
Joseph,  In  number  fourteen  a  mother  presents  her 
child,  for  the  sake  of  remembrance,  with  a  Bible,  which 
she  calls  the  fountain  of  light,  (?)  life  and  joy.  Num- 
ber twenty-three  calls  to  the  scholar:  "God  who  has 
died  in  order  to  save  thee,  cries  to  thee,  fear  thy  Creator!" 
Can  a  God  also  die?  The  subject  of  the  following  num- 
ber is  prayer.  It  commences  thus:  "Go  in  the  morning 
and  at  noon  and  in  the  night  to  thy  chamber,  kneel  down 
and  pray!"  But  is  not  the  child  in  the  morning  and 
night  already  there?  Number  thirty-three,  discusses  im- 
mortality under  the  head, — "What  is  death?"  A  mother 
teaches  her  child  that  just  as  out  of  the  caterpillar  the 
butterfly  arises,  God  will  give  wings  to  his  little  dead 
brother  that  he  may  fly  to  him.  (The  comparison  is 
untrue,  because  the  caterpillar  is  not  dead,  like  the 
brother.)  Number  forty-eight,  entitled  "The  Thunder- 
storm," is  concluded  with  the  words,  "Even  if  a  thou- 
sand lightnings  dart  down  upon  thee,  why  shouldst  thou 
be  afraid  of  death,  as  after  having  been  killed  by  the 
lightnings  thou  wilt  be  with  God  who  hurls  them  down?' ' 
What  a  merciful  God!  In  number  sixty -six  the  child  is 
admonished  to  seek  the  Lord,  his  Saviour,  while  it  is 
young,  that  it  may  at  once  behold  his  face  and  enter  to 
him  through  the  adamantine  (?)  doors  of  Heaven. 
Number  sixty-seven  contains  the  mountain -sermon; 
number  seventy,  Biblical  sentences;  and  number  seventy- 
three  the  same. 

Fifth  Reader. — Here  there  are  some  samples  of  the 
fifth  Reader.  In  number  twenty-six  the  following 
fabulous  story  is  narrated:  In  some  city,  a  barber  once 
heard  a  minister  preach  on  the  text,  "Thou  shalt  keep 
the  Sabbath."  After  the  sermon  he  met  him  in  order  to 


ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  63-: 

consult  him,  alleging,  that  he  was  obliged  by  Ms-trade  i: 
to  work  on  Sunday,  because  the  r&ostof  '-his  tou3tottier&- 
came  to  Jrimioii  that  day,  and  that  if  he  sanctified -it  in   H 
the  sensf  of  the  Scriptures  he  would  lose  4liem>~aiid  bev 
reduced  to  beggary.     The  minister   insisted*  upon    his 
precept,:  the  poor  simpleton  obeyed,  and  (in  order  to  tell  >:; 
it  in  a  word)   became  indeed    as   destitute  as  a  Beggar.  .L 
He  had  to  pass  his  whole  life  in   the  utmost;  indigence. 
But  what  happened? — One   evening,  when   he  had,  Al- 
ready became  an  old  man,  a  strange,^  appeared  unawares 
in  the  barber-shop,  and  infor.ined  him  that  his  rich  un-^ 
cle,in  Hindostan,  had  died,  ancWbequeathed  him  his  whole, 
fortune.     In  conclusion  follows  the  moral  application,  of 
the  story:  "In  .this  way  the  Lord  recognizes  those  A\:jip 
keep  the  Sabbath."  aln  number  fifty-four  the  horror,sr.o;iJT 
dooms.7day  are  described,,  viz;  ..''That  the    King  of  u;e 
judgment    will    appear^  .^surrounded  by  .thousands    oj|f 
spirits,  witlircrqwn  a,nd  pen,"  etc.     In  number  eighty-, 
thre'e  the  author  says:  "The  Bible  came  from  heaven;, 
approved  by  the  Creator  of  all  things.     Its  truths  (?); 
are  as  sacred  as  God  himself,  and  as  imperishable  asvHe, ', 
and, if  we  look  up  from  the  visible  creation  to  the.  in- , 
visible -of  .the  angels  and  seraphim,  and  ask  which  are:, 
the  blessings   of  the  Bible,  .the  pen    of  the  evangelist,, 
and  the  harp  of  the  prophet, answer:  The  Bible  is  the; 
best  ajnong  classic  books  of  tjie  world/'     Is  the  Bible  a, 
classic  book  like  the,  Iliad  of^Homer^;  like  the  worjvs  of 
Shakespeare,  Milton,  Cervantes,  Racine,  Torquato  Tasso, 
Schiller,    Horace,  Virgil,    Qice.ro,   and   other   genii    of 
literature?  In  $us.  style,  .fifteen  per,,  cent, of  "the    pieces 
contained  in  the ;  fifth:   Reader   ar.Q  .written.     The   first 
Reader  br,eatbes  already  this  d^gni^tic  ^pirit     For  ex- 
ample it^^dmon-i^hes  the  child  to;s$v  prayers.,  etc.     For 
illustration  a  wood  cut  is  also  added,  which  represent*  a 


64  ON     PUBLIC    EDUCATION. 


child  kneeling  on  the  floor  with  clasped  hands. 

Many  of  my  scholars  didn't  like  Mr.McGuffey  's  Reader, 
and  once  one  of  them,  a  bright  looking  young  boy,  rose, 
crying:  "Sir!  I  don't  like  to  read  such  trash!"  Said  I: 
"And  I  neither:  there  is  too  much  sectarian  twaddle  in 
the  book;  let  me  look  for  a  more  reasonable  piece!" 
And  so  I  did. 

BOOKS  OF  SONGS  IN  PUBLIC-SCHOOLS. 

Quite  as  much,  if  not  more  religious  superstitition  is 
disseminated  in  our  public-musical  Readers.  For  the 
sake  of  example,  let  me  examine  one  of  them:  "The 
national  music  Reader."  At  least  in  one  verse  of  almost 
ever}-  piece  sectarian  opinions  are  expressed,  concerning 
a  personal  God,  the  Christian  Saviour,  the  angels,  church- 
going,  Sunday-devotion,  resurrection  of  the  dead,  dooms- 
day etc.  It  contains  three  parts.  The  first  (arranged  for 
the  lower  classes)  contains  86,  the  second  113,  the  third 
64  songs;  of  these,  one  fourth  in  the  first,  one  third  in 
the  second,  and  more  than  half  of  the  third  part  teaches 
sectarian  doctrines.  Here  some  samples  of  the  book 
follow.  First  part:  On  the  5th  page  the  angels  sing 
the  praise  of  the  Lord.  On  the  8th  page  it  is  said: 
"God  provides  for  us,  if  we  address  him  with  prayers.  He 
sends  us  an  abundance  of  daily  bread  (?)."  On  page 
13th:  "God  resides  above."  *  On  page  14th:  "Holy 
Christmas  child!  While  thou  art  sleeping,  we  children 
watch."  Page  78th:  Entitled:  "The  childs  angel." 
There  it  is  said:  "Nobody  can  see  the  angel,  he  comes 
from  heaven;  he  passes  from  house  to  house;  where  he 
finds  a  good  child,  there  he  stops,  plays  with  the  child, 
helps  him  to  learn  his  exercises,  watches  him  when  he 
sleeps,  till  to  the  morning,  and  awakes  him  with  a  kiss." 
Eight  songs  are  prayers.  The  second  part  contains  ten 


Na1 


OX  PUBLIC  EDUCATION.  DO 

prayers,  the  third  fourteen  songs  which  are  partly  prayer  , 
partly  hymns,  partly  chorals.  In  these,  amongst  other 
things,  it  is  said,  namely  on .  page  1 5th:  "One  day  I 
also  shall  soar  on  angel-wings;  on  page  '52nd:  "The 
angel-stars  are  watching.''  Page  25th  teaches  the 
Jewish  theory  of  Creation.  On  page  50th:  "Where 
angels  stand  above  :-jaie  in  order  to  conduct  me,  there  is 
my  country."  On  page  88th:  "Come,  prudent  virgins, 
the  bride-groom,  the  son  of  God,  comes;  rise;  let  harps 
and  cymbals  resound]  In  the  holy  city  are  twelve  doors, 
each  one  made  out"  of  one  pearl."  On  page  93rd  the 
Saviour  invites  all'^iento  drink  his  water,  .till  all  know 
and  obey  him.  On  page.  95th  Christ  is  called  a  sun, 
and  it  is  said:  "I  shall  once  stand  in  his  presence.  Lord, 
protect  me  during  the  night;  if  Satan  will  plague  me, 
order  the  .angels  to  assist  me."  On  Page  96th:  "The 
name  of  the  Redeemer  shall  be  sung  in  all  countries  by 
all  tongues!"  j- 

In  such  books  our  scholars  learn  for  years,  as  long 
as  they  are  going  to  school.  Add  to  this  the  religious 
instruction  they  receive  in  most  of  the  Sunday  Schools:, 
and  you  will  not  be  more  astonished  that-they  grownup 
in  sectarian  stupidity  and  fanaticism,  of  which  they  - 
never,  or  seldom  ever,  get  rid.  The  only  question*  is 
here:  Contain  the  passages  I  communicated  from  our 
public  Readers  and  song  books  truth  or  illusion?  And  - 
which  are  parents  obliged  to  let  their  children  learn, 
the  former  or  latter  one?  A  certain  school  superin- 
tendent said :  "  Give  to  scholars  the  best  possible  books 
for  instruction,  and  still  they  never  are  good  enough." 
Our  common  schools  ought  to  impart  only  a  secular 
education,  for  America  is  a  free  country.  Therefore 
such  reading  and  singing-books  as  McGuffey's  and  the 
National  music  Header  should  be  discarded  from  the 


66  ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION, 

list  of  text-books. 


WHAT  INFLUENCES    EXERCISE    THE    EF- 
FORTS OF  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  TUR- 
NER BUND  WITH  REGARD  TO  PUB- 
LIC EDUCATION  ?  AND  TO  WHAT 
EXPECTATIONS  DO  THESE  EF- 
FORTS ENTITLE. 


[A  LAUREATE  PRIZE  ESSAY  1869.) 
Mens  sana  intjorpore  sano.— A  sound  mind  in  a  sound  body.— GALENUS. 


EDUCATION   OF   THE   PEOPLE. 

What  means  education  of  the  people?  It  means  the 
development  and  cultivation  which  the  State  bestows  on 
its  inhabitants.  Education  of  the  people  is  a  duty  of 
the  State,  is  necessary  in  every  State,  especially  in  Re- 
publics, in  which  the  people  is  the  sovereign,  and  all 
citizens  have  the  right  to  vote.  But  the  education  of 
the  people  principally  depends  on  the  quality  of  its 
public  schools.  Upon  the  whole,  they  admit 
that  the  nation  owes  every  citizen  the  opportunity 
and  means  of  an  education.  Certainly  he  has  a  just 
title  to  his  education,  effected  by  the  nation ;  education 
shall  be  imparted  to  him  not  by  charity,  but  sacred 
right*  They  agree  also  that  education  ought  to  begin 
early  in  childhood.  In  this  essay,  neither  the  educa- 
tion which  parents  impart  to  children,  nor  that  which 
nature  accords  to  them  will  be  discussed ;  it  is  restricted 
to  public  education,  which  the  State  should  confer  upon 
its  citizens.  What  influence  exercises  the  North  Amer^ 


ON  PUBLIC  EDUCATION.  07 


ican  "Turner  Bund"  with  regard  to  it,  and  to  what  ex- 
pectations do  they  entitle  us? 

The  Turner  Bund  tries  to  realize  these  ideas  in  the 
schools  of  the  United  States,  declaring  (Stat.  9.):  "It 
shall  be  one  of  the  principal  tasks  of  the  Turner 
associations  to  work  for  the  introduction  of  the  system- 
atic instruction  of  Turning  in  the  schools,  being  an 
indispensable  branch  of  a  sound  education." 

MENTAL  CULTURE.    NO  SECTARIAN  DOCTRINE  IN  SCHOOLS. 

But  the  efforts  of  the  Turner  Bund  are  also  directed 
to  the  mental  cultivation  of  the  youth  (Stat.  9.).  For 
it  is  another  defect  of  our  public-schools  that  they  do 
not  impart  to  the  youth  a  reasonable  intuition  of  the 
Universe,  conformed  to  the  laws  of  Nature,  but 
rather  foster  that  of  the  Old  Testament.  True,  the 
Statute  books  of  several  States  prohibit  teaching  of 
sectarian  opinions  in  the  public-schools;  but  the  school 
officers  don't  mind  them.  The  English  Readers  are 
crowded  with  the  doctrine  of  the  ancient' Church.  In 
the  text-books  of  Geography,  the  creation  of  the  Uni- 
verse, the  creation  of  Man,  the  Deluge  is  represented 
according  to  the  Mosaic  legend.  In  some  (if  not  in 
many)  schools  prayers  are  recited,  biblical  passages 
learned  by  heart,  and  the  Scriptures  read.  Some  school 
superintendents  praise  such  a  bad  practise  in  the  public 
papers.  Teachers  who  sincerely  do  homage  to  Reason 
are  called  infidels,  are  mistrusted  by  the  parents  of  the 
scholars,  perhaps  also  kept  aloof  from  positions  in  schools, 
or  discharged,  and  exposed  to  scorn,  persecution  and 
destitution.  Some  Germans  are  not  even  satisfied  here- 
by; they  insist  that  what  they  call  religion,  ought  to  be 
taught  also  in  the  common  schools,  and  as  such  a  de- 
mand contradicts  the  school  law  they  rather  send  their 


68  ON     PUBLIC    EDUCATION. 


children  to  sectarian  (parochial)  schools.  Natural 
sciences,  which  most  are  adapted  to  afford  to  youth  a 
true  view  of  Nature,  her  forces  and  phenomena,  also 
moral  philosophy  and  natural  Right  meantime  are  ex- 
cluded from  the  public  schools.  In  order  to  oppose 
this  mischief  of  observation,  the  Turner  associations 
pledge  themselves  to  keep  the  scholars  free  from  every 
direction  of  the  Churches  (§11  of  Stat.).  The  Readers 
composed  under  their  direction  correspond  to  this  pur- 
pose, and,  therefore,  are  worthy  of  notice. 

In  the  same  paragraph  they  pledge  themselves  to 
strive  that  in  such  districts  where  the  German  element 
of  the  inhabitants  is  represented  in  a  great  proportion 
the  German  language,  besides  the  English,  be 
introduced. 

SINGING   AND  DBA  WING. 

Singing  and  drawing  are,  in  the  ideal  Turner  school, 
also  appreciated  as  means  of  general  instruction  (§11.) 
These  two  branches  of  learning  hardly  in  any  public 
school  are  practised;  or,  if  the  scholars  sing,  there  are 
only  a  few  songs,  composed  •  for  one  voice,  which  are 
learned  in  a  mechanical  way  by  singing  to  and  repeating 
the  song  of  the  teacher.  Knowledge  of  notes,  a  re- 
gular instruction  in  singing  is  out  of  the  question.  And 
still,  how  pleasing  these  branches  could  be  to  the 
children!  The  everlasting  sitting  and  silence  and  spelling 
deadens  the  juvenile  mind. 

Drawing  would  impart  more  variety  and  liveliness  to 
instruction,  and  the  scholars  like  it  better  than  other 
exercises,  because  it  is  founded  on  intuition.  At  the 
same  time  thev  get  accostumed,  by  good  models,  to  the 
sight  of  beautiful  forms,  to  say  nothing  of  the  useful- 
ness of  drawing  in  the  business  line. 


ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  69 


NO  HIRING  OUT  CHILDREN  IN  TENDER  AGE. 

Finally,  the  members  of  the  Turner  Unions  are  ex- 
pressly bound  by  paragraph  12  of  the  Statutes,  not  to 
withdraw  their  children  from  the  school,  nor  to  hire 
them  out  for  work,  before  they  are  fourteen  years  old. 
If  I  understand  the  meaning  of  this  paragraph,  the 
Bund  aims  by  it  at  two  purposes,  both  of  which  are  of 
great  moment;  they  will  not  allow  the  time,  necessary 
for  education,  limited,  in  order  not  to  deprive  the  child- 
ren of  the  opportunity  for  necessary  education,  nor  to 
help  avaricious,  rude  parents  to  wear  out  the  feeble  forces 
of  their  children  prenierturely  for  their  egotistic 
purposes,  to  embitter  them  the  merry  enjoyment  of  their 
youth,  ard  to  transform  them  into  cripples.  Who  could 
doubt  it  that  there  are  such  unnatural  parents?  Hail  to 
the  friends  of  the  children  among  the  Turners  who  take 
an  interest  in  the  welfare  of  children,  protect  their  rights, 
and  try  to  promote  their  happiness!  The  love  and 
gratitude  of  the  youth,  the  training  of  a  stronger 
generation,  the  enhancement  of  the  public  welfare,  and 
the  consciousness  to  have  labored  for  the  progress  of 
humanity,  will  be  the  sweet  reward  of  their  noble 
efforts. 

INFLUENCE  OF  THE  TURNER  ASSOCIATIONS  UPON 
THE  BODY  OF  THE  ADULTS. 

When  the  young  man  passes  from  the  school  room  into 
public  life,  they  call  his  education  finished,  and  the 
State  abandons  him  henceforth  to  his  own  direction. 
But  his  cultivation  is,  nevertheless,  not  yet  accomplished; 
really,  it  is  never  finished;  for  education  of  man  con- 
tinues through  the  wrhole  life;  but  if  parents  and  tearh- 
ers  before  took  care  of  it,  he  is  directed  to  himself,  since 


70  ON    PUBLIC     EDUCATION. 


the  Law  declares  him  of  age,  and,  therefore,  must  him- 
self set  to  work  to  continue  his  culture.  In  this  period, 
of  his  life  the  Turner  Unions  offer  him  again  their  help; 
they  open  to  him  their  halls  where  he  can  continue  the 
exercises  he  began  when  he  was  a  scholar,  aud  enlarge 
his  sphere.  He  seizes  gratefully  the  offered  opportunity, 
and  continues  to  practise  eagerly  the  vocation  of  a 
Turner  which  he  learned  to  like.  He  resigns  it  not,  even 
when  he  has  established  a  family,  because,  he  will  re- 
tain the  strength  and  dexterity  he  formerly  acquired. 
He  pursues  no  more  grand  performances;  his  interests 
are  now  engaged  in  other  affairs  which  concern  him 
nearer:  he  'discards  also  dangerous  exercises,  for  the 
father  of  a  family  is  not  permitted  to  risk  an  arm  or 
even  a  finger  for  the  sake  of  vain  glorious  sports,  but 
he  likes  and  still  practices  total  commotion  of  the  body 
in  order  to  preserve  his  health. 

INFLUENCE  OF  THE  TURNER  ASSOCIATIONS  UPON  THE 
MIND  OF  ADULTS. 

The  influence  of  the  Turner  Unions  is  also  efficacious 
with  regard  to  the  mind  of  the  adults.  In  order  to  be 
able  to  appreciate  their  efforts  we  must  consider  the 
public  state  of  our  country.  According  to  the  opinion 
of  Theodore  Parker  ("Speeches  and  Addresses,"  1.  vol.) 
which  though  expressed  forty  years  ago,  may  be  still 
valid,  in  the  whole,  to  day,  four  public  forces  influence 
the  self  education  of  the  citizens:  Politics,  Industry, 
Church  and  Literature.  Each  of  these  forces  has  its 
bright  and  shady  side,  which,  by  Parker,  are  delineated 
in  distinct  features.  From  his  representation  follows 
that  the  four  national  activities  though  also  exerting 
some  salutary  influence  upon  public-education,  do  not 
afford  that  degree  of  perfection  which  would  correspond 


ON   PUBLIC  EDUCATION".  71 

to  the  idea  of  the  individual  .man  and  of  a  republic.  The 
State  does  not  teach  perfect  justice,  neither  the  Church; 
Commerce  does  not  teach  consommate  morality,  and  the 
literature  which  happens  to  meet  with  millions  of 
readers,  especially  newspapers,  teach  the  people  to 
esteem  public  opinion  higher  than  absolute  truth. 

Under  such  circumstances,  Turner  Vereine  are,  indeed, 
a  blessing  of  the  nation,  for  their  members  learn  by 
them  to  know  the  bright  and  dark  parts  j@f  these  publie 
forces,  to  esteem  the  former,  and  to  despise  and  fight  the 
latter  ones.  Their  intelligence  is  elevated  in  their  halls, 
for  it  is  the  special  task  of  the  Bund  to  lead  its  members 
by  all  its  ways  and  means  to  the  right  understanding  of 
all  radical  reforms  which  happen  in  the  social,  political 
and  religious  life.  (Platform,  1.)  This  Union  is  a 
nursery  of  all  ideas  which  shoot  from  a  natural,  reason- 
able view  of  the  Universe  (1.)  Moreover  the  Bund 
sees  in  the  way  as,  in  this  country,  most  of  -the  public 
affairs  are  treated  a  great  danger  for  the  developement  of 
true  liberty  (Platform  3.)  It,  therefore,  obliges  the 
single  associations  to  take  care  of  the  enlightenment  of 
its  members  in  the  pendent  political  questions  (IV:) 
In  9_rder  to  attain  the  purposes  which  are  mentioned  in 
these  paragraphs,  every  Turner  society  -possesses  ay 
library  into  which  only  such  works  are  admitted  which 
are  written  with  the  intent  of  progress,  and  are  fit  to 
advance  the  cultivation  of  free  men  in  all  directions  of 
public  life.  For  the  s#rne  end  are  also  regular  meetings 
arranged  in  which  tjie  joiembers  communicate  the 
liberal  ideas  they  gained'^  before  or  recently,  and  such 
lectures  are  delivered  as.  areVih  harmony  with  the  pro- 
gressive tendencies  of  the.  age.  Especially,  with  regard 
to  a  reasonable  intuition  of  the  TJnivserse  which  agrees 
with  the  laws  ot  Nature,  these  institutions  of  the  Bund 


72  ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION. 


must  produce  so  much  greater  effect  in  such  members 
as  were  instructed  in  the  schools  of  the  Bund,  because 
sectarian  instruction  in  such  schools  is  excluded  (§11 
of  the  Statutes,)  and,  therefore,  their  mind  is  so  much 
better  prepared  to  understand  and  to  accept  free- 
religious  truths.  For  experience  teaches  that  it  is 
difficult  to  root  out  weeds  of  superstition  if  they  were 
sown  in  the  minds  of  the  youth,  and  had  much  luxuriated. 
Representations,  opinions  and  doctrines,  instilled  into 
the  juvenile  mind,  usually  stick  in  the  memory,  and 
extend  their  effect  through  the  whole  life.  An  old  man 
rarely  gives  over  the  faith  he  received  in  his  youth. 

THEY  SPREAD  HAPPINESS    IN  PUBLIC  LIFE. 

But  the  Turner  associations  are  not  satisfied  to  pro- 
mote their  own  physical  and  mental  prosperity,  they 
intend  also  to  spread  happiness  in  public  life:  for  they 
pledge  themselves  to  strive  for  the  realization  of  reforms 
in  social,  political  and  religious  sphere,  and  in  particu- 
lar, for  equal  rights  of  all  men  (Platf.  I.)  Therefore, 
they  combat  every  attempt  to  limit  liberty  of  conscience, 
or  to  oppress  the  colored  man;  they  fight  the  hatred  of 
aliens,  the  restraint  of  the  right  of  suffrage,  and,  in 
general,  all  infringements  of  right  which  cannot  be  re- 
conciled with  human  and  republican  principles  (Platf. 
III.)  Knowing  well  enough  that  the  best  laws  turn 
out  dead,  if  those  who  execute  them  are  guidad  by 
party  rage,  egotism  or  ambition,  they  oppose  undaunt- 
edly political  corruption  (Platf.  Ill,)  and  help  onward 
the  election  of  such  candidates  who  beside  honesty 
have  the  necessary  ability.  Their  halls  are  open  to 
every  orator  who,  by  gift  of  eloquence,  is  able  to 
satisfy  the  expectations  and  interest  of  our 
age.  They  celebrate  the  anniversaries  of  such 


ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION iO 

men  who  became  renowned  as  champions  of 
religious  enlightenment,  or  in  the  realm  of  natural  science 
e.  g.  ttye  festival  of  Thomas  Paine  and  of  Alexander 
Huinb'oldt/, 

When,"  in  1861,  the.  Union  was  endangered,  and 
President  Lincoln,  called  the  citizens  to  arms,  most  of 
the  Turners  entered  the  army  voluntarily.  The  rebels 
in  Missouri  had  fortified  a  camp.  Almost  all  Turners 
of  St.  Louis  enlisted  for  the  fight  forming  five  regiments 
and,  joint  to  the  Germans  of  the  city,  took  the  camp. 
The  first  man  who  in  this  struggle  fell,  was  a  Turner. 
One  of  the  regiments  was  commanded  by  general  Sigel. 
The  Turner  society  of  New  York,  organized  the  20th 
regiment,  commanded  by  Max  Weber.  The  5th  reg- 
iment of  Wisconsin,  being  part  of  the  famous  iron  brigade 
was  composed  of  Turners.  TUe  Turner  association  of 
Cincinnatti  raised  the  9th. regiment  of  Ohio,  under  com- 
mand of  colonel  Tafel.  In 'this  way,  almost  all  members 
of  the  Turner  Bund  served  in  the  armies  of  the  Union;  in 
fact,  a  very  large  per  cent  of  the  Bund  fell  in  the  bloody 
battles  of  that  war,  e.  g.  the  fourth  part  of  the  association 
of  Milwaukee.  Many  were  also  wounded;  others  car- 
ried the  germ  of  an  incurable  disease  from  the  infernal 
rebel  prisons  into  their  homes  where  they  found. an  early 
grave. 

THEIR  ADVERSARIES  HAVE  NO  REASON  TO  BLAME 
THEIR  EFFORTS,  AND  TO  ACCUSE  THEM  OF  INFIDELITY. 

But  the  adversaries  of  the  Turner  societies  object  to 
their  efforts  on  the  ground  that  they  also  carry 
on  politics,  and  are  infidels.  In  a  re- 
public their  political  efforts  cannot  excite1  any 
suspicion;  to  the  contrary,  the  Turners  are  designated 
to  come  forth,  among  the  other  forces  of  the  narion,  as 
an  important  factor.  If  they  acquire,  by  their  ox- 


74  ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION. 

ercises,  physical  strength  and  ability,  can  they  conceive 
a  grander  aim  of  them  than  to  enable,  by  them,  them- 
selves to  protest,  to  defend,  to  save  their  country,  if  it 
be  necessary?  Should  they,  with  such  intentions,  look  on 
indifferently  if  vile  fellow  citizens  carry  on  politics  as 
a  trade,  despise  the  most  sacred  interests  of  the  country, 
and  lead  it,  by  their  nefarious  management,  to  the  verge 
of  ruin?  If  they  are  determined  to  spill  their  blood  for 
the  imperiled  country,  they  must  also  be  permitted  to 
render  their  vote  in  its  common  affairs,  to  be  a  torch  to 
the  short-sighted,  «  support  to  the  vacillating,  to  pull 
the  mask  from  the  face  to  the  mock-patriot,  and  where  a 
decisive  issue  is  in  danger  to  throw  also  the  influence  of 
their  Bund,  counting  30,000  members  into  the  scale. 
Especially  vain  is  the  reproach  of  disbelief  which 
some  hurl  into  the  face  of  the  Bund.  Their  intuition 
of  the  Universe  is  the  natural  fruit  of  the  knowledge 
they  gain  in  the  departments  of  progressive  science. 
With  the  same  right,  A.  Humboldt,  Darwin,  Louis 
Buechner,  Lyell,  Tyndall,  Herbert  Spencer,  Thomas 
Huxley,  and  most  of  our  modern  poets,  were  to  be  ac- 
cused of  infidelity.  If  true  to  their  conviction,  they 
give  expression  to  their  views  in  their  meetings,  and  try 
to  propagate  them,  they  act  hereby  just  with  the  same 
right,  as  the  believers  from  their  part.  In  general 
there  is  only  one  liberty,  though  it  manifests  itself  in 
different  directions,  in  the  same  way  as  all  colors  of  the 
prism  emanate  from  one  ray  of  light.  A  liberty  which 
were  prohibited  from  the  approach  to  politics  or  to  re- 
ligion, or  to  any  other  fountain  of  public  life,  would 
not  deserve  more  its  name. 


ox 


EXPECTATIONS  TO   WHICH  THE   EFFORTS 

OF   THE    NORTH    AMERICAN    TURNER 

BUND    ENTITLE.       WITH    REGARD 

TO  PHYSICAL  TURNING. 


DEGENERATION  OF  MAN. 

Many  incontestible  facts,  and  a  glance  at  life  teach 
us  that  the  human  race  in  the  countries  which  they  call 
"civilized"  is  subject  to  a  gradual  physical  and  moral 
deterioration,  growing  worse  and  worse  from  one  gen- 
eration to  the  other.  This  is  still  more  so  in  the  cities 
than  in  the  country,  and  more  in  Europe,  than  in 
America.  What  is  the  cause  of  this  occurrence? 
Ignorance,  or  inattention  to  the  most  sacred  laws  of 
Nature.  It  is  known,  according  to  the  tables  of  mor- 
tality, that  nearly  the  third  part  of  new  born  children 
die  either  from  scrofula,  or  from  pulmonary  disorder. 
Diptheria,  scarlet  fever,  measles  and  croup,  annually 
snatch  away  a  great  part  of  the  young  ones.  Our 
cities  are  overstocked  with  sickly  people  who  suffer 
from  weak  stomachs,  weak  nerves,  weak  limbs.  Is  there, 
perhaps,  a  better  appearance  with  regard  to  mental  life? 
The  number  of  weak  minded  is  continually  increasing 
in  ail  civilized  countries. 

REMEDIES. 

In  order  to  remedy  this  state  of  phenomena,  and  to 
Improve  in  general  the  health  of  the  people,  there  aiv 
different  expedients,  e.  g.  reforms  of  diet,  of  dwellings, 


7(5  OX    PUBLIC    EDUCATION, 


destruction  of  intemperance  and  luxury,  education  of  a 
moral  and  frugal  generation  etc.  But  national  gymnas- 
tics, surely,  are  also  one  of  these  expedients,  and  besides, 
one  of  the  most  excellent  and  most  efficacious.  I  don't 
now,  by  turning,  mean  bold,  dangerous  feats  of  art,  but 
the  practical  instruction  to  train  the  whole  body  of 
man.  Xo  force,  without  effect;  no  cause,  without  con- 
sequence. If  the  eftorts  of  the  North  American  Turner 
Bund  will  succeed;  if,  according  to  its  platform,  gym- 
nastics are  generally  practiced,  not  only  in  higher  in- 
stitutes, but  in  all  public  schools,  and  are  also  continued 
in  later  age;  with  a  word,  if  they  become  national  they 
will  produce  the  most  salutary  effects.  I  will  delineate 
the  most  important  at  least  in  the  outline. 

EFFECTS  OF  TURNING. 

The  Turn  gymnast  will  be  able  to  use  and  govern 
every  limb,  every  muscle  of  his  body.  It  is  well  known 
what  dexterity  jugglers,  piano  players,  and  even  people 
who  have  only  one  arm  or  some  toes,  can  acquire  by 
continued  exercises.  Fatal  accidents,  as  they  befall 
easily  the  awkard,  the  infirm  and  the  recluse  will  be 
rare,  for  the  Turner  holds  the  best  preventive  in  him- 
self. A  good  Turner  falls  like  a  cat.  Even  in  sudden 
disasters  in  which  the  novice  usually  loses  the  presence 
of  mind,  he  knows  to  help  save  himself  and 
others.  He  who  does  not  exercise  his  body  has  no 
wholesome  blood.  The  truth  of  this  axiom  is  proved 
by  our  green-  sick  town  misses,  seamstresses,  milliners, 
thousands  of  scrofulous  children,  of  the  large  cities, 
and  by  so  many  phthisical  and  consumptive  people 
who  form  the  largest  class  of  patients,  especially  among 
scholars,  copyists  and  manufacturers,  and  who,  almost 
without  an  exception,  fall  victims  of  death.  The  Turner 
has  fresh  blood  and  sound  lungs.  He  owes  these  ad- 


ON    PUBLIC     EDUCATION.  77 


vantages   to   exercises   with    clubs,  at  the  single    and 
double  bars,  and  to  others. 

Even  with  regard  to  Aestetics,  the  power  which 
gymnastics  exert  on  the  body  will  be  apparent.  The 
pale  cheeks  will  disappear,  and  abound  in  healthy,  red 
blood.  Compare  the  stout  maintenance,  the  vigor  of 
the  growth,  even  the  elegance  of  the  Turner  with  that  of 
the  clumsy  manufacturer,  and  laborer  who  is  bent  by 
toil:  what  a  difference !  Not  the  poisonous  colors  and 
salves  by  which  the  fair  ones  procure  an  artificial  tinge 
of  red  and  white  to  their  pale  cheeks,  but  the  gymnast- 
ics discover  the  secrets  of  true  cosmetic. 

PROLONGATION    OF     LIFE. 

"The  usefulness  of  gymnastics,"  says  H,  C.  Richter 
(in  his  speech:  "How  do  we  conserve  us  youthful?"), 
appears,  principally,  in  the  renovation  of  life.  The 
well  regulated  and  vigorous  motion  is  salutary  for  the 
body.  "Only  the  Turner  knows  the  great  salubrity  of 
that  profound,  intense  breathing;  only  he  knows  how 
the  gymnastics  advance  the  reception  of  new  spirits  of 
life  into  the  breast;  how  they  cause  the  blood  to  per- 
meate easier  and  quicker  in  the  veins;  how  they  sharpen 
the  appetite;  how  they  promote  sleep  and  every  process 
of  secretion."  In  accordance  with  Biehter's  observations, 
gymnastics  will,  when  generally  practiced,  rejuvenate 
the  nation,  and  prolong  the  duration  of  life  of  the  sexes. 

EFFECTS    ON    THE    FORMATION    OF    MIND. 

The  advantages  of  Turning  will  also  be  apparent  in 
the  mental  life  of  the  nation,  for  body  and  mind  are, 
essentially,  a  unity.  Great  mental  efficiency  is  usually 
joined  with  physical  strength.  Schiller  was  indeed  a 
great  poet,  and  Lichtenberg  a  prominent  mathematician, 
though  both  had  a  feeble  body;  but  they  are  only  ex- 
ceptions to  the  rule.  A  sane  disposition  of  mind  will 


ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION. 


be  perceived  in  the  way  of  life  of  the  future  generation 
if  it  be  accustomed  to  Turning.  The  spleen  and 
hypochondria  will  disappear.  Many  Turners  who  wore 
before  whimsical  and  morose,  were  changed,  in  the  Tur- 
ner societies,  into  lively  fellows  of  good  spirits — We  hope 
that  national  Turning  will  also  form  the  character  of 
people.  Constancy  in  noble  intentions,  firm  courage  in 
days  of  adversity,  perseverance  in  enterprises  of  public 
benefit,  with  a  word:  a  decided  character  will  replace 
frivolity,  time-serving,  hypocrisy,  a  coward  policy. — As 
(according  to  Eichter's  remark)  regular  gymnastics, 
practiced  in  common,  accustom  the  single  individual  to 
let  prevail  the  law  and  order,  even  in  the  most  perfect 
exercises  of  force,  and  to  subdue  the  rude  physical 
power  to  the  dominion  of  his  own  reason  and  of  common 
sense:  they  will,  certainly,  make  sensible  the  juvenile 
mind  for  virtue  and  law. 

TURNING    USEFUL    FOR    EVERY    VOCATION. 

Turning  is  profitable  for  every  business.  If  you  are 
bound  to  sedentary  life,  you  avoid,  by  it,  diseases,  or  you 
destroy  the  germ  of  them.  If  your  trade  demands  phy- 
sical force,  Turning  prevents  awkwardness  which  other- 
wise is  inevitable,  and  provides  nirnbleness.  It  aifords 
to  the  workman,  anyhow,  an  agreeable  recreation. 

IT    PREPARES    TO    WAR. 

Turning  is,  finally,  an  excellent  preparatory  school 
of  war.  '"'What?"  cry  the  opponents,  umust  the  chil- 
dren be  educated  for  war;  the  Turnerhall  changed  into 
an  exercising  ground;  an  exhilarating  sport  into  war- 
like earnest  ?"  Not  at  all !  The  art  of  arms  must  not 
be  taught  in  the  Turning  school:  but  as  Turning  gener- 
ates resolution  and  energy;  as  it  accustoms  to  order  and 
obedience;  as  it  strengthens  and  hardens  the  body,  and 


ON  PUBLIC  EDUCATION.  79 


makes  the  limbs  pliable:  it  fits,  hereby,  the  men  for  the 
<combat,  if  it  is  necessary  for  the  fatherland.  What  were 
the  tournaments,  from  which  even  the  name  is  derived? 
Military  exercises,  plays,  preparing  for  serious  com- 
bat. To  what  agency  owed  the  Greeks  their  mili- 
tary superiority,  their  glory  of  arms,  their  independence; 
To  the  gymnastic  exercises  to  which  they  applied  in  their 
schools  and  national  games,  and  to  which  the  youth  wras 
obliged  by  public  laws.  Without  them  10,000  Athen- 
ians would  not  have  defeated,  at  Marathon,  a  hundred 
thousand  of  Persians!  the  Greeks  would  not  have  van- 
quished,  at,  Platasse,  a  three  times  larger  army  of  the 
enemies;  their  fleet  would  not  have  gained  the  victory  at 
Salamis. 

The  Spartan  youth,  in  particular,  excelled  by  hardi- 
ness and  physical  strength;  it  made  Sparta  and  Greece 
respected,  feared,  and  praised  by  the  neighbors.  Three 
hundred  Spartans  and  a  small  band  of  allies  defied,  at 
Thermopylae,  the  whole  army  of  the  Persians  checked 
them  for  three  days,  and  let  them  only  over  their  corpses 
invade  Greece.  Xerxes  could,  not  take  the  Pass  but 
by  treason,  and  a  loss  of  50,000  men.  In  modern  times, 
Switzerland  understands  the  political  importance  of 
Turner  schools.  As  this  country  has  no  standing  army, 
and  every  citizen  is  bound  to  military  service,  these 
scuools  represent  the  barracks,  and  train  an  ignorant 
offspring  in  them.  America's  condition  is  the  same; 
national  Turning,  here  also,  will  afford  incalculable 
advantages.  It  habituates  to  union,  order,  attention, 
for  time-keeping  and  command:  matters  which  in  an 
army,  composed  of  thousands  of  members,  are  of  great 
importance.  It  gives  to  the  body  a  military  attitude 
and  bearing.  The  exercises  at  the  bars,  climbing,  shov- 
ing and  lifting,  prepare  the  arms  for  the  manifold  ex- 


80  OST   PUBLIC    EDUCATIOXr 

ercises  with  gun,  and  strengthen  the  breast.  The  ex- 
ercises in  throwing,  especially  those  with  the  spear,  are 
preparatory  for  shooting  with  the  fire-arm,  teaching  to 
conform  hand  and  eye  together.  Vaulting,  (jumping 
on  the  wooden  horse.)  prepares  for  riding  horseback. 
Running  and  leaping,  as  well  as  marching,  belong  also 
these  performances. 

They  object  that  people  have  no  time  for  such  exer- 
cises; but  we  answer,  first,  with  regard  to  children  who 
go  to  school :  spend  every  day  or  weekly  several  times, 
half  an  hour  of  the  regular  school-time  for  these  ex- 
ertions. The  small  loss  of  time,  if  any,  for  mental  cul- 
ture is  very  likely  outweighed  by  the  joyful  and  refresh- 
ing disposition  of  mind  which  these  exercises  cause  to 
the  scholars  by  attention  in  which  they  are 
kept  by  them,  and  by  other  benefits  they  afford 
to  them.  The  adult  members  of  the  Turner  Unions 
find  time  enough  to  perform  these  exercises.  They 
meet  for  them  on  Sundays.  These  days  are  also,  in 
general,  at  the  people's  command.  Would  it  not  be 
more  praiseworthy  and  useful  to  employ  them  for  exer- 
cises which  have  a  patriotic  scope,  than  to  waste  them 
with  debauchery,  and  playing  at  cards  in  saloons,  in 
dancing-rooms,  with  nightly  revels  ?  We  have  military 
academies  at  West  Point.  New  Haven  and  Anapolis, 
which  educate  officers  for  our  armies  and  fleets.  Let 
us  have  also  Turner  institutes  all  over  the  country  in 
which  the  nation  receives  the  necessary  preparation  for 
defending  and  offending  in  war  ':ime.  When  in  1851 
the  Southern  States  raised  the  flag  of  secession  we  felt 
keenly  the  want  of  well  trained  troops,  Let  us  make 
Turning  a  business  of  the  entire  nation,  and  the  State, 
and  we  shall  not  have  any  more  of  a  second  Bull  Run 

A  precious  prize  is  to  be  won  by  it:  security   for   the 


ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  81 

liberty  of  every  citizen  and  of  the  whole  country,  for  its 
wellfare  and  glory,  for  the  safety  of  the  families  and 
domestic  happiness;  with  a  word  for  the  highest  and 
most  precious  go:ds  whieh  makes  up  the  felicity  of  man. 

And,  in  order  to  accomplish  national  education  girls, 
too,  ought  to  exercise  in  Turning.  Let  also  girls  prae- 
tice  gymnastics.  This  is  done  already  in  some  places; 
let  such  institutes  soon  be  established  everywhere. 

Then  will  diseases  and  defects  which  now-a-day 
frequently  assail  the  fair  sex,  e.  g.,  the  green  sickness, 
asthenia,  consumption,  megrime  excresences  and  crook- 
edness of  the  back  occur  rarely.  Bad  accidents  at 
deliveries  which  now  destroy  the  life  of  many  a 
mother  who  is  used  to  sedentary  life  and  which  render 
entire  families  unhappy  will  also  chance  very  seldom. 

Our  mothers  will  bring  forth  sound,  vigorous  child- 
ren, and  take  so  much  more  care  of  good  physical 
education  of  their  offspring,  as  they  find  out  its  ad- 
vantage by  their  own  experience. 

EXPECTATIONS  WITH    REGARD  TO  MENTAL   EFFORTS  OF  THE 
TURNER  BUNDS.-EQUAL  RIGHTS  AND  LIBERTY  FOR  ALL. 

The  efforts  of  the  North  American  Turner-bund 
are  not  only  directed  to  the  physical  education  of 
the  nation,  but  they  are  also  extended  to 
the  promotion  of  its  political,  social  and 

religious  interests,  in  general,  to  the  improve- 
ment of  the  higher  nature  of  man.  The  expedients  it 
uses  for  this  purpose,  e.  g.,  regular  meetings,  Turn  festi- 
vals, Turn  excursions,  libraries,  singing  clubs  etc.,  will, 
— as  we  hope — be  established  everywhere  in  the  country; 
mental  culture,  too,  will  become  the  concern  of  the  peo- 
ple. If  this  epoch  of  civilization  commences,  people 
will  relish  good,  popular  ingenious  writings,  instead  of 
insipid  novels  and  re-actionary  journals.  Then  the 


82  ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION. 

shackles  of  sham-democracy,  of  money-aristocracy,  of 
priestly  power,  of  domestic-  and  school  tyranny  will  fall 
to  the  ground.  The  colored  man  will  not  only  enjoy 
the  right  of  suffrage,  but  also  acquire  the  means  to  con- 
serve, and  enjoy  his  life  in  an  honest  way.  The  strong- 
er sex  will  not,  in  his  physical  superiority,  find  a  privil- 
ege to  be  the  guardian  and  governor  of  the  feeble  one. 
The  relations  of  the  school  will  be  utmost  assimilated 
to  the  likewise  reformed  family  life,  and  the  youth  will 
not  see  spoiled  their  most  beautiful  years  of  human  ex- 
istence. The  State  will  make  no  more  distinction  be- 
tween jews  and  Christians,  believers  and  infidels,  natives 
and  adopted  citizens;  between  thorough -bred  Yankees, 
German  and  Irish  people;  it  will  consider  them  all  as 
its  children,  award  them  the  same  rights,  as  they  must 
bear  the  same  loads;  grant  them  the  competition  to  all 
public  offices,  and  the  advantages  of  the  commonwealth 
and  in  future,  the  offices  will  no  more  fall  a  booty  to 
the  political  victor,  but  will  be  conferred  according  to 
merit  and  worth. 

PAUPERISM  WILL  HAVE  AN  END. 

Pauperism  among  the  proletarians,  this  curse  of  the 
old  world,  which  also  in  the  large  Atlantic  cities  of 
America  is  felt  more  and  more,  will  be  terminated  by 
workingmen  associations,  hereditary  laws  and  other  re- 
forms in  accordance  with  the  age;  the  partiality  of  a 
blind  fortune  will  be  limited,  and  the  power  of  moneyed 
aristocracy  restrained,  the  greediness,  usury  and  tyranny 
of  the  capital  checked.  In  general,  humane  and  truly 
democratic  principles  will  more  and  more  penetrate  the 
mind  of  the  nation,  and  the  opposite  infringements  of 
Bight,  become  scarcer;  Liberty,  the  device  of  our  coin, 
will,  then,  be  no  more  only  a  fine  phrase,  but  truth  and 
reality. 


ON  PUBLIC  EDUCATION.  83 

INTELLIGENT  VIEWS  OF  THE  UNIVERSE. 

f  Another  fruit  of  culture  will  be  an  intelligent  view 
pf  the  Universe.  The  power  of  superstition  will  disap- 
pear and  cede  to  the  rays  of  knowledge;  the  age  of  Rea- 
son for  which  Thomas  Paine  wrote  and  suffered,  will 
dawn.  The  people  will  not  endure  to  be  managed 
iind  deceived  by  modern  Pharisees  and  Tartuffes.  To 
be  sure,  it  will  tell  nobody  what  he  must  believe,  or  how 
he  ought  to  imagine  and  worship  the  Supreme  Being; 
but  it  will  nevertheless  take  care  of  liberty  of  conscience 
against  the  usurpations  of  fanatical  dogmas,  and  arro- 
gant sects,  contend  against  their  intolerance,  and  spirit 
of  persecution. 

EFFECTS  OF  NATIONAL  SINGING. 

The  fine  arts,  if  generally  introduced,  will  not  fail  to 
improve  national  life.  Song,  in  particular,  exalts  the 
pleasures  of  social  life;  it  opens  the  eyes  and  the 
heart  of  the  young  man  to  the  charms  of  true  love,  and 
joins  closer  the  tie  of  friendship  and  fraternity  of  the 
associates  who  foster  equal  sentiments,  and  struggle  for 
the  same  aim  of  humanity.  The  improved  national 
song  will  displace  the  rude,  obscene  airs  which  now 
are  still  heard,  sometimes  in  the  streets,  and  at 
drinking  parties,  will  elevate  public  morality  to  a  high- 
er standard,  will  kindle  the  hearts  of  the  people  for 
freedom,  right  and  fatherland.  If  the  poet  and  singer 
TyrUeus  whom  the  Spartans  sent  to  the  Messeniens  by 
mockery,  because  he  was  lame,  was  able  to  inspire  them 
with  such  courage  by  his  songs  that  they  could  resist 
their  enemies,  the  Spartans,  and  entirely  vanquish  them: 
what  effects  will  the  songs  of  our  modern  composers, 
o.  u.  of  Carl  Maria  Weber,  Kreuzer,  Mendelsohn,  and 
Wagner  produce?  Will  they  not  have  power  to  inspiiv 
ige  to  a  nation  of  Turners  for  the  interests  of  their 


Courag 


84  ON    PUBLIC1    EDUCATION. 


country?  Did  not  Theodore  Korner's  war  songs  put  in 
music  by  C.  M.  Weber,  strengthen  many  a  warrior  for 
the  combat?  AY  ho  is  not  inflamed  for  every  noble  ex- 
ploit, by  the  patriotic  tunes  which  are  sung  in  the  Tur- 
ner societies?  And  if  such  tunes  become,  like  turning, 
the  undertaking  of  the  entire  nation,  what  grand  deeds 
must  they  not  cause  in  time  of  public  perils. 

AGE  OF  UNIVERSAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  HUMAN  FACULTIES. 

The  German  Turning  institution  will  inaugurate  a 
new  epoch  of  civilization  in  America:-the  age  of  the 
general  harmonious  development  of  all  human  facul- 
ties. As  far  the  people  was  seeking  its  welfare  from 
outside  from  the  physicians  and  their  remedies  for  the 
body,  from  the  church  and  her  priests  for  the  mind; 
in  future,  it  will  create  its  paradise  and  heaven  by  it- 
self. It  will  regulate  its  actions  according  to  the  laws 
of  the  physical  and  mental  nature  of  man.  It  will  cul- 
ture all  its  forces.  "Mens  sana  in  corpore  sano."-  A 
sound  mind  in  a  sound  body.  This  sentence  of  Galenus, 
recommended  two  thousand  years  ago,  will  be  the  de- 
vice of  the  nation.  The  body,  the  supporter  of  mental 
force,  will  be  restored  to  its  full  rights,  will  be  declared 
of  equal  birth  with  the  mind,  will  be  like  this,  and  with 
the  same  care,  cultivated  and  improved,  and  the  ideal 
of  human  perfection  thereby,  more  and  more  realized. 

All  forces  of  man    will  be  harmoniously  developed. 

His  animal  instincts  will  not  be  more  oppressed,  as 
a  mistaken  piety  used  to  do,  in  the  mediaeval  age,  and 
also  now  a  day  still  often  tries  to  do;  nor  will  they  domi- 
neer at  the  cost  of  his  higher  faculties,  as  it  also  often  is 
done;  humanity,  morality,  right,  patriotism,  love  of 
husband  and  wife,  faithfulness  of  parents,  brotherly 
love,  friendship  will  be  highest  esteemed.  The  people 
will  imprint  what  there  is  good,  true  and  beautiful,  in 


ON    PUBLIC    EDUCATION.  85 

its  actions,  will  fulfil  all  duties  of  a  good  citizen,  and 
practice  humanity,  the  highest  aim  of  mankind. 
Universal  brotherhood  will  then  cure  the  wounds  of 
fate,  dry  the  tears  of  poverty,  unite  all  men  into  one 
family.  Earth  will  then  be,  what  it  could  and  should 
be,  our  home  and  elysium  indeed. 


SECTION  SECOND— ON  A  PIECE   OF   CHALK. 

IMITATED  FROM  PROF.  TH.  HUXLEY    ("LAY  SERMON- 
EXTENSION  OF  THE    LAYERS  OF  CHALK. 

If  you  would  dig  a  well  in  the  midst  of  the''  city  of 
Norwich,  in  England,  you  would  soon  have  to  work  in 
that  white  substance  which  is  almost  too  soft  to  be  call- 
ed rock,  and  is  generally  known  by  the  name  of  chalk. 

But  the  layers  of  chalk  in  England  are  only    an    in- 
considerable part  of  the  area    which   the   formation    o  f 
chalk  occupies    on  the   globe.     Chalk    occurs  :in    the 
north-western  part  of  Ireland;  it  expands  over    a '  large 
portion  of  France,  the  chalk    upon    which   Paris    rests 
being  in  fact  only  a  continuation  of  that  of  the  basin  o  f 
London;  the   chalk     extends    through   Denmark    and 
middle  Europe,  and  stretches  south  to  northern  Africa, 
while  to  the  east  it  appears  in  Crimea  and    Syria,    and 
can  be  followed  as  far  as  to  the  shores  of  the  sea  of  Aral. 

If  all  layers  of  chalk  on  the  earth  were  included  into 
an  irregular  ellipse,  its  longitudinal  diameter  would 
amount  to  three  thousand  miles;  and  Jits  circumference 
equal  that  of  Europe.  Therefore,  chalk  is  no  incon- 
siderable element  in  the  masonry  which  the  crust  of 
earth  forms.  Now,  what  is  this  far  stretching  substance 
which  constitutes  a  part  of  the  surface  of  *  the  earth? 
And  whence  did  it  come? 

ITS  COMPOUND. 

In  the  chalk  a  large  chapter  of  universal    history    i- 
written  down.     It  is  easier  to  learn  the  language  of  the 


JOHN  Q.  ADAMS. 


SECTION  SECON 

NATUEAL  SCIENCE, 


ON    A    PIECE    OF    CHALK.  87 

chalk  than  .Latin  and  Geeek,  provided  that  we  will  ob- 
serve the  broad  ground  lines  of  the  history  it  has  to 
tell;  and  now,  if  you  please,  let  us  spell,  in  company 
this  history. 

We  know  that  if  chalk  is  burnt,  the  result  is  quick- 
lime. Chalk  is  a  compound  of  carbonic  acid  gas  and 
lime,  and  if  it  is  much  heated  the  carbonic  acid 
evaporates,  and  the  lime  remains.  By  this  experiment 
wre  see  the  lime,  but  we  do  not  see  the  carbonic  acid. 

But  if  you  pulverize  a  little  chalk,  and  pour  the  pow- 
der into  strong  vinegar,  much  bubbling  and  fizzing 
takes  place,  and  finally  a  clear  liquid  is  produced  in 
which  no  more  chalk  is  visible.  There  the  carbonic 
acid  in  the  little  bubbles  is  seen;  but  the  chalk  which 
was  dissolved  in  the  vinegar  disappears  from  sight. 

The  chemists  prove  this  kind  of  composition  of  the 
chalk  still  by  other  experiments  which  I  here  pass  over, 
and  they  teach  us  that  it  almost  entirely  consists  of  car- 
bonic acid  and  quicklime.  It  is  useful  to  us  to  proceed 
from  the  knowledge  of  this  fact  though  it  seems  of  not 
much  help.  For  the  carbonic  acid  of  the  lime  is  a  sub- 
stance far  spread  which  we  encounter  under  very  dif- 
ferent conditions.  All  kinds  of  lime-stone  are  compos- 
ed from  more  or  less  pure  carbonic  acid  and  lime. 

HOW  IT  APPEARS  UNDER  THE  MICROSCOPE. 

If  you  grind  a  slice  of  chalk  down  so  thin  that  you 
can  see  through  it,  it  appears  quite  differently,  when  it 
is  observed  under  the  microscope.  Generally,  the  mass 
consists  of  small  granules;  innumerable  corpuscles  are 
imbedded  in  this  matrix,  some  smaller,  some  larger,  but 
not  longer  than  one-hundredth  of  an  inch  in  diameter 
(having  a  well  denned  shape  and  structure.)  A  cubic 
inch  of  some  species  of  chalk,  may  contain  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  these  bodies  compacted  together  with  in- 


88  ON    A    PIECE    OF    CHALK. 


calculable  millions  of  the  granules.  If  you  rub  up,  in 
water,  some  chalk,  with  a  brush,  and  then  pour  off  the 
milky  liquid,  the  granules,  and  the  minute  corpuscles 
may  be  separated  from  one  another,  and  submitted  to 
the  microscope,  these  rounded  bodies  appear  to  be 
nicely  formed  calcareous  fabrics  consisting  of  a  number 
of  chambers  communicating  freely  with  one  another. 
The  forms  of  these  chambers  are  different.  A  most 
common  one  about  resembles  a  raspberry,  and  contains 
a  number  of  nearly  round  chambers.  It  is  called  globi- 
gerina.  Such  small  corpuscles  of  pretty  creatures  which 
are  more  numerous  than  the  san  d  of  the  ocean,  are  still 
found  in  a  large  part  of  the  surface  of  the  earth  which 
is  covered  by  the  sea. 

THE  SLIME  OF  THE  ATLANTIC  OCEAN  EXAMINED. 

Namely,  in  1853  Brook,  lieutenant  in  the  navy  o^ 
the  United  States,  brought,  by  means  of  an  apparatus 
invented  by  him,  slime  up  from  the  bottom  of  the 
Atlantic  ocean,  and  sent  samples  of  it  to  the  professors 
of  Ehrenberg,  in  Berlin,  and  Baily  in  West  Point  who 
being  very  skilful  in  microscopy,  examined  it,  and 
found  that  it  for  the  most  part,  consisted  of  the  mention- 
ed globigerinas  which  ulso  occur  in  chalk.  Then,  as 
the  Atlantic  cable  was  to  be  laid,  captain  Dayman  of 
the  English  admiralty  received  commission  to  examine, 
the  bottom  of  the  sea,  to  bring  back  samples  of  the  bot- 
tom, and  to  produce  them  to  his  friend  Th.  H.  Huxley 
for  examination.  The  result  of  the  examination  of  both 
the  gentleman  was,  that  nearly  the  whole  bottom  on 
which  the  cable  rests,  1700  miles  wide  and  still  hund- 
reds of  miles  towards  south  and  north,  is  covered  with 
a  fine  slime  which,  when  dried  on  the  surface,  becomes 
a  grayish  white  friable  substance,  looks  like  chalk,  and 


also  is  fit,  like  this  for  writing.  Chemical  examination 
shows  that,  for  the  most  part,  it  consists  of  carbonic  acid 

and  lime,  and  if,  like  chalk,  it  is  cut  in  thin  slices, 
and  observed  under  the  microscope,  there  is  also  an 
innumerable  quantity  of  giobige.riiue  discovered.  Con- 
sequently, this  slime  of  the  profound  sea,  principally, 
is  chalk, 

CONTEXTS  OF  THE  SLIME. 

The  chambers  of  many  globigerina3  are  filled  with 
a  soft  animal  substance.  This  one  is  the  remainder 
of  the  creature  to  which  the  shell,  or  rather  skeleton 
•owes  its  existence,  and  which  is  an  animal  of  tli3 
simplest  kind.  In  fact,  it  is  merely  a  particle  of  living 
jelly,  without  any  special  parts — without  a  mouth,  arms, 
muscles,  nerves  or  definite  organs,  disclosing  its  vital 
power  only  by  stretching  out,  and  retracting  from  all 
parts  of  its  surface,  long  filamentous  processes  which 
nerve  for  arms  and  legs.  And  still,  this  deformed  ani- 
malcule is  able  to  nourish  itself,  of  growing  and  multi- 
plying; of  separating  from  the  ocean,  the  carbonate  of 
lime,  which  is  dissolved  in  the  sea-water,  and  of  build- 
ing up  that  substance  into  a  skeleton  for  itself.  (The 
history  of  the  globigerinae  is  g  ven  in  my  book  "The 
Youth's  Liberal  Guide,"  part  second  §§  5  and  7.) 
A<;E  OF  THE  CHALK  FORMATION. 

But  the  hardened  slime  of  the  ancient  >ea  reveaK 
here  and  there,  also  the  remains  of  higher  animal  spe- 
cies, e.  g,,  of  corals,  of  the  naval  shell  which  resembles 
the  pearl  shell,  and  of  all  species  .of  sea-hedgehogs  and 
star-fish.  All  these  are  till  4o-day  confined  to  sea-water 
and  remains  of  them  are  found  in.  the  chalk,  while 
this  not  one  kind  of  testaceous  animals  which  live 
fresh  water  can  be  found.  If  we  consider  that  the 
mains  of  more  than  o,000  species  of  jujuatiV  aniir 


VJU  OX    A    PIECE    OF    CHALK, 

were  discovered  among  the  fossils  of  chalk,  and  that  the- 
majority  of  them  belong  to  such  forms  which  now  only 
are  found  in  the  sea,  we  have  one  more  proof  for  the  as- 
sertion that  the  chalk  represents  the  ancient  bottom  of 
the  sea,  and  we  shall  not  find  the  supposition  exaggerat- 
ed that  the  great  area  of  the  dry  land  which  the  chalk 
now  occupies,  once  has  been  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea. 
It  is  not  less  certain  that  the  time  while  the  the  coun- 
tries which  now  we  call  England,  France,  Germany, 
Poland,  Russia,  Egypt,  Arabia,  Syria,  were,  more  or 
less,  covered  with  a  profound  sea,  was  of  considerable 
duration.  It  is  known  that  the  chalk,  on  some  places,, 
is  more  than  a  thousand  feet  thick.  I  think,  you  will 
consent  with  me  that  it  must  have  taken  a  long  time  for 
the  skeletons  of  animalcules  which  have  but  one- 
hundredth  of  an  inch  of  diameter  in  order  to  ac- 
cumulate such  a  mass.  I  have  said  that  the  remainder 
of  other  animals  are  dispersed  through  the  thickness 
of  the  chalk.  Some  of  these  belong  to  creepers  of  con- 
siderable size.  These  also  lived  their  time,  had  their 
ancestors  and  descendants,  what  surely  wants  time,  for 
the  creepers  grow  slowly. 

CHANGES  OF  THE  AREA  OF  THE  CHALK. 

On  the  coast  of  Norfolk,  powerful  layers  of  alluvial 
clay  are  seen  over  the  chalk,or  rather  between  the  chalk 
and  clay,  there  is  a  proportionately  thin  layer 
which  contains  vegetable  matter,  Both  this 
layer  and  the  layer  of  clay  must  be  younger 
than  the  chalk.  Now,  this  layer  reports  wonderful 
things.  It  is  full  of  trunks  of  trees  which  still  stand  ;:s 
they  have  grown.  Here  are  pine  trees,  with  their  cones, 
hazel-bushes  with  their  nuts,  here  stand  the  trunks  of 
oaks,  yew-trees,  beaches  and  alders.  It  is  self-evident 
that  the  chalk  must  have  been  lifted  up,  and  changed 


ON    A    PIECE    OF    CHALK.  91 


into  dry  land  before  forest-trees  could  grow  upon  it. 
As  the  bolls  of  some  of  these  trees  are  from  two  to  three 
feet  in  diameter,  it  is  no  less  clear  that  the  dry  land 
thus  formed  remained  in  the  same  condition  for  long 
ages.  In  these  forests  the  remains  of  elephants,  rhi- 
noceros', hippotami,  and  other  large  beasts  are  found. 
Tha  ,  dry  land,  with  the  bones  and  teeth  of  long-lived 
elephants,  sank  by  degrees,  to  the  bottom  of  a  glacial 
sea,  and  was  covered  by  this  with  immense  masses  of 
alluvial  clay.  Sea-beasts,  such  as  the  walrus,  paddled 
about  where  birds  in  the  branches  of  pine-trees  had 
twittered.  We  don't  know  how  long  this  condition  of 
things  lasted;  still,  it  also,  in  time,  was  finished. 

The  accumulated  mud  of  the  glacial  sea  hardened; 
forests  grew  again;  wolf  and  castor  took  the  place  of  the 
reindeer  and  elephant,  and  at  last,  the  history  of  Eng- 
land began  to  dawn.  And  the  wondrous  transforma- 
tions of  the  sea  into  land  and  land  into  sea,  did  not 
remain  limited  to  a  corner  of  England.  None  of 
the  present  forms  of  earth  existed.  Our  great  chains 
of  mountains,  Pyrenees,  Alps,  Himalayas,  Andes, 
they  have  all  mounted,  after  the  chalk  was  deposi- 
ted, and  the  sea  of  chalk  had  flooded  over  the  tops 
of  Sinai  and  Ararat. 

THE  CHALK  SEA  CONNECTS  THE  ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  FORMS 
OF  LIFE. 

But  great  as  these  physical  changes  of  earth  are: 
not  less  striking  are  the  transformations  of  its  living 
inhabitants  by  which  they  were  accompanied:  All  the 
large  classes  of  the  animals  of  the  fields,  of  the  air  and 
of  the  water,  flourished  long  before  the  deposition  of 
chalk.  But  very  few  (if  in  general,  any  one)  of  these 
old  animal  forms  were  identical  with  those  which  pres- 
ently exist.  If  we  could  wander  back  to  those  ancient 


92  ON    A    PIECE    OF    CHALK. 

times,  we  should  see  mammals,  birds,  creepers,  fishes,  in- 
sects, snails  etc.,  which  certainly  could  be  distinguished 
as  such  ones,  but  yet  would  not  be  the  same  with  which 
we  are  acquainted,  and  many  would  be  quite  different, 
from  that  to  the  present  time;  the  inhabitants  of  earth 
have  experienced  incessant  changes,  though  slowly  and 
by  degrees.  There  were  no  catastrophes  which  floated 
off  the  forms  of  life  of  one  period  and  replaced  them 
with  new  creations;  but  one  species  dissappeared,  and 
another  took  its  place.  And  the  inhabitants  of  the 
sea  of  chalk  are  those  which  connect  together  the  mem- 
bers of  the  old  and  new  forms  of  life,  groups  which  die 
away,  flourish,  side  by  side  with  groups  which  are  now 
the  ruling  forms.  In  this  way,  chalk  contains  the  re- 
main? of  those  strange  flying  and  swimming  reptiles  of 
the  pterodactyl,  the  ichthyosaurus  and  the  plesiosaurus, 
which  are  f  jund  in  no  later  layers  of  earth,  but  were 
frequent  in  the  preceding  periods.  But,  among  the  ex- 
piring remainders  of  former  times  some  modern  forms 
of  life  are  found  which  look  like  Yankee  peddlars, 
among  a  tribe  of  red  Indians.  Crocodiles  of  modern 
type  come  in  sight;  bone-fishes  very  similar  to  ex- 
tant species,  almost  displace  the  fish  forms  which  pre- 
vailed in  older  seas,  and  many  species  of  living  shells 
we  get  acquainted  with  first  in  the  chalk. 

HOW  DID  THE  TRANSFORMATIONS    OF    THE  EARTH  AND    HER 
INHABITANTS  ORIGINATE? 

So  far,  I  have,  for  ought  I  know,  alleged  well  proved 
facts;  but  the  human  mind  is  thus  disposed  that  it  al- 
ways tries  to  discover  also  the  remoter  links  in  the 
chain  of  causation.  If  we  admit  the  manifold  changes 
which  in  any  place  of  earth,  by  sea  and  by  land,  took 
place  as  proved,  we  cannot  forbear  to  ask  HOW  they 
were  effected:  I  do  not  know  if  somebody  can  give  a 


ON   A    PIECE    OF    CHALK,  93 


I 


satisfactory  answer  to  this  question.  Not  I,  certainly. 
All  what  with  certainty  can  be  said,  is  that  such  move- 
ments are  part  of  the  usual  course  of  Nature,  inasmuch 
.as  they  still  take  place  before  our  eyes.  It  can  be  safe- 
ly proved  that  some  parts  of  the  land  of  the  northern 
hemisphere,  is  at  this  moment  insensibly  rising,  and 
others  insensibly  sinking;  and  it  can  be  shown  indirectly 
but  sufficiently,  that  a  vast  area  which  now  is  covered 
by  the  Pacific  ocean,  has  deepened  thousands  of  feet 
since  the  present  inhabitants  of  that  sea  came  into  ex- 
istence. Hence,  there  is  not  a  shadow  of  reason  for  be- 
lieving that  the  physical  transformations  of  earth,  in 
past  times,  have  been  effected  by  other  than  natural 
causes. 

Is  there  more  reason  that  the  accompanying  trans- 
formations of  the  living  inhabitants  of  the  planet  have 
been  brought  about  in  another  manner  ?  Before  I  an- 
swer this  question,  let  me  report  a  special  case.  The 
crocodiles  have,  as  a  group,  a  high  antiquity.  They 
were  there  in  abundance  before  chalk  was  deposited;  to^ 
day  they  crowd  in  the  rivers  of  hot  countries.  There 
is,  certainly,  a  difference  in  the  shape  of  the  joints  of 
the  spine,  and  in  some  smaller  particulars  between  the 
crocodiles  of  the  present  time  and  those  of  the  chalk 
period;  but,  as  I  remarked  before,  they  assumed,  in  the 
later,  the  modern  type  of  their  structure.  Nevertheless 
the  crocodiles  of  the  chalk  period  are  not  identical  with 
those  which  lived  in  the  older  tertiary  period  (as  they 
call  it)  which  followed  that  of  chalk;  and  the  crocodiles 
of  the  older  one  are  not  conform  to  those  of  the  newer 
tertiary  period,  nor  are  these  identical  to  the  still 
living  forms.  Every  epoch  had  its  own  crocodiles. 
How  can  the  existence  of  such  a  long  series  of  different 
species  of  crocodiles  be  explained  ?  It  seems  there  are 


94  ON    A    PIECE    OF    CHALK. 


only  two  suppositions — either  every  species  of  crocodiles 
was,  especially  created,  or  it  developed  from  some  form 
which  before  had  existed  by  the  activity  of  natural 
causes.  Choose  your  hypothesis;  I  have  chosen  mine. 
I  can  find  no  warranty  for  believing  in  the  distinct 
creation  of  a  score  of  successive  species  of  crocodiles  in 
the  course  of  countless  ages  of  time.  Science  does  not 
support  such  a  wild  production  of  imagination.  On  the 
other  hand,  I  see  no  good  reason  against  the  acceptance 
of  the  other  hypothesis  that  all  these  various  species 
have  been  developed  from  pre-existing  crocodilian  forms 
by  the  efficacy  of  causes  as  completely  a  part  of  the 
common  order  of  Nature,  as  those  which  have  effected 
the  changes  of  the  inorganic  world, 

Few  will  venture  to  affirm  that  the  reasoning  which 
applies  to  crocodiles,  looses  its  force  among  other  animals  , 
or  among  plants.  If  one  series  of  species  has  come  in- 
to existence  by  the  operation  of  natural  causes,  it 
seems  folly  to  deny  that  all  may  have  arisen  in  the 
same  way. 

A  small  beginning  has  conducted  us  to  a  great  end. 
If  I  should  throw  the  small  piece  of  chalk  with  which 
we  began  in  the  hot  but  dark  flame  of  burning  hydro- 
gen, it  would  presently  shine  like  the  sun.  This  physi- 
cal metamorphosis  seems  to  me  to  be  an  image  not 
badly  chosen  for  the  nature  of  a  lecture.  It  has  illumi- 
nated the  obscure  abyss  of  passed  times,  and  brought 
some  studies  of  the  development  of  the  earth  into  the 
clear  horizon  of  our  intuition.  And  in  the  shifting 
"without  haste  but  without  rest,"  of  land  and  sea,  as  in 
the  infinite  variation  of  the  forms  assumed  by  living  be- 
ings wTe  have  observed  nothing  but  the  natural  product 
of  the  forces  which  the  matter  of  the  Universe  possessed 
at  all  times. 


VOICES    OF   SCIENCE  95 


VOICES  OF  SCIENCE  ON   SOME   TENETS  OF 
MATERIALISM. 


There  are  truths  which,  in  modern  time,  are  asserted 
by  scientific  men,  but  give  offense  to  many  of  our  co- 
temporaries,  and  excite  their  doubts,  because  they  con- 
tradict adopted  prejudices.  It  is  the  purpose  of  the 
following  communication,  to  propose  some  of  these  truths 
to  the  thinking  reader,  or,  if  he  knows  them  already,  to 
recall  them  to  his  mind.  But  I  intend  to  propound 
them  by  the  very  words  of  those  men  who  pronounced 
them  in  their  writings,  though  to  much  vexation  of 
biased  ones.  I  commence  with  the  sentence  of  the 
English  naturalist,  Thomas  Huxley:  "All  organic 
shapes  of  formation  are  identical  in  their  elements/' 
He  writes  in  his  book  "Lay  Sermons/'  in  this  way: 

IDENTITY  OF  THE  ELEMENTS  OF  ALL  ORGANISMS. 

"What  is  organic  nature?  Nature  which  possesses 
life;  therefore  all  animals  and,  plants  belong  to  its  realm 
for  modern  botany  attributes  life  also  to  plants;  the 
terms  organic  and  living  nature  are  synonyms.  All 
organic  beings  commence  their  existence  in  the  same 
form,  namely  the  form  of  an  egg  or  cell. — If  you  reduce 
an  oak,  or  a  man,  or  a  horse,  or  an  oyster,  or  any  other 
animal  to  their  first  germs:  you  will  see  that  all  begin 
their  existence  in  forms  which  essentially  resemble  each 
other,  and,  besides,  you  will  observe  that  the  first  steps 
of  growth  and  many  of  their  later  transformations,  al- 
most all  follow,  essentially,  the  same  principle.  These 
sentences  are  not  mere  hypotheses;  they  can  be  as  well 
demonstrated,  as  the  theorems  of  geometry  and  arith- 


96  ON    SOME   TENETS    OF    MATERIALISM. 

metic;  they  rest  on  facts,  on  which  Darwin  founded 
his  theory  of  the  origin  of  species,  and  which  are  con- 
firmed by  "all  great  natural  philosophers  of  our  time." 
From  this  theory  of  the  great  English  naturalist 
which  by  all  men  of  natural  science  is  approved,  many 
other  important  theorems  can  be  deduced,  of  which  I 
will  state  a  few. 

THE  FUNCTIONS  OF  MIND  ARE  A  PRODUCT  OF  THE  BRAIN. 

If  all  organic  shapes  of  formation  are  effected  by 
Nature,  the  functions  of  human  mind  must  also  be  a 
product  of  Nature.  There  are  many  natural  philoso- 
phers, who  consider  these  functions  as  a  product  of  the 
brain.  Instead  of  proving  their  opinions  myself,  I  will 
give  again  the  words  of  men  who  are  celebrated  by  their 
scientific  culture.  Karl  Vogt,  (Physical  Letters,)  says: 
"It  is  nonsense  to  suppose  a  soul  which  uses  the  brain 
like  an  instrument;  or  you  must  also  suppose  a  special 
soul  for  every  function  of  the  body."  Moleschott  (cir- 
culation of  the  blood)  writes:  "The  brain  is  to  the 
production  of  thoughts  quite  as  necessary,  as  the  liver 
for  the  preparation  of  the  bile."  And  Louis  Buchner 
(Kraft  and  Stoff )  says:  "The  brain  and  soul  are  iden- 
tical, or  the  brain  is  the  cause  of  thought." 

IS  THE  SOUL  IMMORTAL? 

If  all  forms  of  natural  formation  are  variable,  and 
liable  to  perish,  the  functions  of  mind  must  also  have 
an  end  with  the  dissolution  of  the  body.  I  quote  again: 
"Under  whatever  disguise  it  takes  refuge,  whether  fun- 
gus or  oak,  worm  or  man,  the  living  protoplasm  ulti- 
mately dies,  and  is  resolved  into  its  mineral  and  lifeless 
constituents."  Huxley — "I  object  to  affirm  that  I 
look  to  a  future  life,  when  all  that  I  mean  is  that  the 
influence  of  my  sayings  and  doings  will  be  more  or  less 


VOICES   OF   SCIENCE  97 


felt  by  a  number  of  people  after  the  physical  compo- 
nents of  that  organism  are  scattered  to  the  four  winds." 
The  same: — "The  soul  is  to  the  theology  an  incorporeal 
principle  which  lives  in  the  body,  and  remains,  when 
that  one  perishes.  But  it  is  not  such  a  principle  for 
natural  science;  if  its  organ,  the  body,  perishes,  the  soul 
has  also  an  end;  science  does  not  know  an  individual 
continuation  of  soul.  Not  only  the  times  have  been, 
that,  when  the  brains  were  out  the  man  would  die,  and 
there  an  end,  (as  Macbeth  says):  nowadays  it  is  the 
same  and  it  will  be  so  forever."  K.  Vogt,  (Physical 
Letters.)  Bock,  one  of  the  most  renowned  German 
physicians,  and  professor  in  Leipsic,  writes  in  the  same 
way:  "The  materialist  affirms  that,  according  to  im- 
mutable natural  laws,  also  the  mental  force  of  the  brain 
must  cease,  if  its  matter  perishes."  Again:  "Mind 
being  the  result  of  organized  nervous  matter,  is  like  the 
material  man,  subject  to  mortality." — Boston  Investiga- 
tor.— "The  most  painful  truth  is  death;  how,  then, 
should  we  acknowledge  it  ?  Therefore,  we  deny  that 
death  is  the  end  of  man;  and  still,  this  end  is  a  truth 
quite  as  common,  evidently  testified  by  the  senses,  as 
man's  birth,  proved  by  the  same  witnesses,  the  senses, 
as  his  commencement." — Feuerbach.  "The  soul  origi- 
nates with  the  brain,  it  grows,  decreases  and  is  taken 
ill  with  it;  a  lasting  separation  of  both  is  impossible. 
There  is  no  matter  without  force,  and  inversely.  Mind 
cannot  be  imagined  without  a  body,  not  more  than 
electricity  or  magnetism  or  without  metals. 
Soul  did  not  exist  for  an  eternity;  if  it  were  indestruct- 
ible, it  had  to  have  existed  for  an  eternity.  That  what 
once  did  not  exist  must  also  again  perish." — Louis 
Buchner,  (Kraft  and  Stoff.,  §  16.) 

Moreover  from  the  principle  of  Huxley  follows:       If 


98  ON   SOME  TEKETS   OF  MATERIALISM:, 

M  shapes  of  organic  formations  are  identical  in  their 
first  elements,  there  can  only  be  a  gradual,,  not  an 
essential  difference  between  the  soul  of  animal  and  man, 

THE  HUMAN  SOUL  DIFFERS  FROM  THAT  OF  THE  ANIMAL  NOT 
IN  KIND,  BUT  ONLY  IN  DEGREES, 

This  proposition  follows  immediately  from  the  first 
one  of  Huxley,  viz:  Unity  of  all  shapes  of  organic  for- 
mations. For  if  the  elements  of  animal  and  man  are 
identical,  there  cannot  be  an  essential  difference  between 
their  forces.  Professor  Bock  expresses  this  view  with 
these  words:  "It  is  not  my  intention  to  signify  that 
there  is  no  difference  between  the  faculties  of  the  lowest 
and  highest  plant,  or  between  plants  and  animals;  but 
the  distinction  between  the  forces  of  the  lowest  plant  or 
animal  and  those  of  the  highest  one  is  a  difference  in 
degree,  not  in  nature."  Darwin,  in  his  famous  wrork 
"descent  of  man,"  confesses  the  same  doctrine,  saying: 
"The  conclusion  arrived  at  in  this  work  and  now  held 
by  many  naturalists  who  are  well  competent  to  form  a 
sound  judgement,  is  that  man  is  descended  from  some 
less  highly  organized  form."  There  are  more  testimo- 
nials to  the  same  effect:  "The  enormous  length  of  time 
during  which  the  human  race  has  existed,  is  a  powerful 
argument  in  favor  of  the  opinion — now  generally  accep- 
ted— that  the  human  race  was  originated  by  a  slow 
process  of  development,  from  a  race  of  non-human  pri- 
mates; similar  to  the  anthropoid  apes.."  John  Fisk. — 
"The  mental  faculties  of  man  are  merely  in  number,  not 
peculiarity;  in  quantity,  not  quality,  dissimilar  from  those 
of  animals." — K.  Vogt  (in  ages  from  animal  life.)  "The 
soul  of  the  animal  differs  from  that  of  man  in  quality,  not 
quantity."  L.  Buchner  (Force  and  matter). 

Finally,  from  the  identity  of  all  organic  formations, 
results  the  shallowness  of  the  faith  in  human   free-will 


VOICES    OF   SCIENCE  99 


(as  it  is  usually  understood). 

IS  THE  HUMAN  WILL   REALLY  FREE? 

Here  are  testimonials  for  this  assertion.  "It  is  quite 
impossible  to  prove  that  something  (what  ever  it  be)  is 
not  the  effort  of  a  material  and  necessary  cause,  and,  in 
like  manner,  the  human  understanding  is  not  able  to 
prove  that  any  action  really  is  voluntary.''  Huxley- 
"It  belongs  to  the  essence  of  man  to  strive  for  welfare, 
or  to  try  to  preserve  himself.  Pain  informs  him  what 
he  ought  to  avoid,  pleasure,  what  to  desire;  therefore  it 
belongs  to  his  substance  to  love  that  which  causes  agree- 
able sensations,  to  hate  what  now,  or  afterwards  causes 
disagreeable  ones;  his  will  is  nesessarily  determined  or 
attracted  by  objects  which  he  thinks  to  be  useful;  it  is 
necessarily  repulsed  by  those  which  he  believes  to  fae 
noxious."  Holbach  (systeme  de  la  nature),  "Man  is  a 
product  of  nature,  also  by  his  mental  essence;  for  that 
reason,  that  which  he  thinks,  feels,  wills  and  does,  also 
is  founded  in  such  necessity  of  Nature  as  the  whole 
system  of  the  world."  L.  Buchner  (Force  and  Matter.) 
"Human  liberty  of  which  all  boast  consists  merely  there- 
in that  men  are  conscious  of  their  will,  but  unconscious 
of  the  course  by  which  they  are  determined/'  Spinoza. 
"Man  is  free,  like  the  bird  in  the  cage."  Lavater,  auth- 
or of  the  physognomic  letters.  Finally,  Feurbach,  the 
most  acute  German  thinker,  and  most  honest  philoso- 
pher, writes  in  his  most  significant  work,  "God, 
Free  Will  and  Immortality,"  the  following  words 
on  free-will:  "The  will  and  the  impulse  to  happiness 
are  identical.  The  will  is  the  determination  by  our 
own  accord,  but  within  the  determination  of  Nature 
which  is  independent  from  human  will.-The  will  is  the 
desire  for  some  good  object,  be  it  real  or  imaginary.- 


100  ON    SOME    TENETS    OF    MATERIALISM. 

Yes,  man  endeavors  necessarily  for  welfare;  this  effort 
belongs  to  his  essence." 

Our  opponents  will  object  "These  views  are  downright 
materialistic;  if  you.  don't  believe  in  immortality,  and 
deny  free  will  of  man,  morality  is  undone,  and  man  is 
no  more  responsible  for  crimes  which  he  commits,  and 
cannot  be  subjected  to  punishment."  We  don't  under- 
stand the  necessity  of  human  actions  in  this  way;  in 
most  cases,  man  can  reflect  upon  what  he  will  do,  can 
select  the  means  and  resolve.  But  his  impulse  for  hap- 
piness is  the  foundation  of  all  these  mental  functions. 
The  mechanic  works  in  his  shop,  the  painter  in  his 
studio,  the  farmer  in  the  field,  the  merchant  in  the 
counting-room,  day  after  day,  year  after  year;  what 
does  induce  them  to  their  professional  exertions?  The 
endeavor  for  happiness,  and  so  far  as  they  act  in  accord- 
ance with  this  endeavor,  their  will  is  bound,  necessarily 
so,  or  otherwise  determined.  "But  then  are  you  not 
wretched  egotists  ?  Are  you  fit  for  a  noble  action,  for 
self-sacrifice?"  Why  not?  We  know  pretty  well  that 
other  people  must  follow  the  same  impulse,  and  feel  us 
happy  by  the  consciousness  of  having  rendered  others  so 
though  to  our  damage.  While  we  render  our  fellow- 
man  happy,  our  own  impulse  for  happiness  is  satisfied. 
The  philanthropist  feels  himself  blessed  if  he  sees  the 
eye  of  the  brother  to  whom  he  afforded  help  moistened 
by  tears  of  gratitude. 

There  are  theoretical  and  practical  material- 
ists. The  first  ones  confess  the  truths  of  a  new  view  of 
the  universe,  without  being,  therefore,  necessarily  indul- 
gent to  vice.  The  others  believe  the  doctrines  of  their 
sects,  but  are  often  hypocrites,  and  reveling  in  sen- 
sual pleasures,  while  they  pass  indifferently  by  the 
misery  of  their  brethren.  It  is  dangerous  to  utter  the 


VOICES    OF    SCIENCE  101 


truths  of  materialism,  it  generates  hate,  and  persecution; 
it  rarely  affords  profit  and  honor.  While  the  orthodox 
arch-bishop  of  London  has  an  income  of  £100,000,  the 
infidel  philosopher  Herbert  Spencer  possesses  not  more 
than  he  acquires  laboriously  by  his  writings.  No,  the 
precepts  of  virtue  remain  always  the  same,  whether  we 
believe  human  will  to  be  free  or  bound,  for  their  fount- 
ain is  the  general  immutable  human  nature  with  her 
innate  impulses,  among  which  that  impelling  to  happi- 
ness occupies  the  first  and  highest  place. 


MATTER  AND  FORCE. 

FROM  LOUIS  BUCHNER.  (AX  EXTRACT.) 


This  essay  is  an  extract  from  Louis  Buchner's  fam- 
ous work  "Stoff  and  Kraft"  (Matter  and  Force).  I 
prepared  it,  because  probably,  few  of  my  readers  know 
the  original  work  which  is  written  in  the  German  lang- 
uage. 

MATTER  AND  FORCE. 

§  1:— No  matter  is  without  force,  and,  inversely,  no 
force  is  without  matter.  Forces  can  not  be  communicat- 
ed, only  awakenad,  e.  g,,  the  force  of  attraction  is  la- 
tent in  the  load-stone,  and  becomes  active,  if  iron  filings 
are  approached  to  it.  Forces  are  necessary  qualities  of 
matter. 

MATTER  IS  IMPERISHABLE. 

§  2: — The  grave-digger  in  "Hamlet"  of  Shakespeare, 
reasons  in  this  manner,  as  he  digs  out  a  skull: 
"Imperial  Caesar,  dead,  and  turned  to  clay, 
Might  stop  a  hole  to  keep  the  wind  away." 
We  learn  by  this  example  that  matter  can  take,  by  and 
by  other  forms,   but  never   perish.     Not   the   smallest 
atom  is  ever  lost.     Matter  is  immortal.     We  learn   also 
from  this  theorem  that  the  human    body    is   immortal, 


MATTER    AND    FORCE.  103 

though  it  changes  its  form,  even  during  life  time.  On 
the  contrary,  the  spirit  disappears  at  the  dissolution  of 
the  body.  Giordano  Bruno  who  asserted  this  view  was 
in  1600,  in  Kome,  therefore  burned. 

MATTER  IS   ALSO  INFINITE. 

§  3: — Matter  is  infinite,  that  is,  without  beginning 
and  end  in  space.  This  theorem  is  proved  by  the  tele- 
scope and  the  microscope.  The  white  clouds  of  the 
starry  heavens,  when  viewed  by  the  telescope,  are  re- 
solved in  myriads  of  stars.  Again,  we  perceive,  through 
the  microscope,  a  world  of  creatures,  in  a  drop  of  water, 
e.  g.,  radiates.  Their  inner  organization  is  unknown;  so 
also  the  magnitude,  form  and  composition  of  the  atoms 
i.  e.  of  the  smallest  parts  of  matter  which  we  imagine  to 
be  indivisible.  Valentin  says  in  his  text-book  of  physi- 
ology: "A  grain  of  salt  contains  millions  of  groups  of 
atoms  which  no  human  eye  ever  can  perceive."  Mat- 
ter, and  consequently  the  world,  is  infinite  also  in  its 
smallest  parts. 

DIGNITY  OF  MATTER. 

§  4: — If  force  is  only  a  quality  of  matter,  it  follows 
that  the  human  body  is  equal  in  worth  to  the  spirit. 

Only  the  simpleton,  the  fanatic  can  despise  and  tor- 
ment his  own  body.  The  Mediaeval  centuries  taught  us 
sufficiently  to  which  follies  the  doctrine  of  the  vileness 
of  the  human  body  can  induce.  The  flagellants  passed 
as  penitents  through  the  land,  flogging  them  selves  to  the 
blood  before  the  people.  The  monks  buried  themselves, 
with  living  bodies,  in  cloisters,  and  threatened,  not  sel- 
dom, their  superiors  to  kill  them  with  poison  and  poni- 
ard, because  they  were  not  able  to  destroy  the  carnal 
impulses  of  their  nature.  Let  us,  therefore,  cultivate 
and  nurse  the  body  as  carefully  us  the  mind,  for  both 
are  inseparable. 


104  MATTER    AND    FORCE. 


THE  LAWS  OF  NATURE  ARE  IMMUTABLE. 

§5:-What  is  a  law  of  nature?  Moleschott  answers:  "The 
strictest  expression  of  necessity;"  e.  g.  the  stone  neces- 
sarily falls  to  the  ground,  following  the  law  of  gravi- 
tation; the  germ  and  the  fruit  are  developed  from  the 
grain  of  seed,  according  to  fixed  laws.  Superstition 
which  admits  effects  where  there  are  no  causes,  or  not 
sufficient  ones,  has  to  perish  among  civilized  nations. 

No  hand,  stretched  forth  from  the  clouds,  was  efficient 
to  raise  mountains,  to  transpose  oceans;  to  create  men  and 
animals.  This  was  effected  by  tha  same  forces  which 
still  nowadays  transpose  mountains  and  oceans,  and  it 
happened  as  the  expression  of  the  strictest  necessity. 

Alexander  Humboldt  represents  he  world,  in  his  im- 
mortal work  "Kosmos,"  as  a  complex  of  natural  laws. 

Even  so  it  is  with  human  fate.  No  invisible  hand 
does  lead  us;  we  are  ourselves  the  forgers  of  our  for- 
tunes. Hear  the  stern  word  of  the  profound  thinker, 
Feuerbach;  "Nature  answers  not  the  laments  and  ques- 
tions of  man;  she  hurls  him,  inexorably,  back  on  him- 
self." If  the  world  wanted  repairing  from  time  to  time, 
an  irreparable  rent  would  pass  through  it,  disconsolation 
and  arbitrary  power  would  rule;  no  science  could  exist. 

Under  such  circumstances,  the  belief  in  miracles, 
also,  falls  down,  for  where  the  laws  of  Nature  rule,  no 
exceptions,  i.  e.,  wonders  can  be  admitted.  The  young- 
er the  human  race  was,  the  more  general  was  dark  be- 
lief in  wonders;  the  higher  and  brighter  the  light  of 
natural  science  spreads  its  splendor,  the  more  the  clouds 
of  these  superstitions  vanish. 

NATURAL  LAWS  ARE  GENERAL. 

§  6: — Nature  gives  her  laws  not  only  for  this  earth, 
but  for  all  heavenly  bodies.  All  are  subjected  to  the 
same  laws  of  gravitation  and  rotation.  Nights  and 


MATTER    AND    FORCE.  105 

days  alternate  also  in  the  planets;  they  experience,  too, 
the  influence  of  light,  warmth,  and  electric- 
ity; their  masses  are  also  impenetrable  and  divisible. 
The  law  of  attraction  which  forces  moons  to 
revolve  around  their  earths,  and  planets 
around  their  suns  was  observed  trillions  of  miles  far; 
nowhere  an  exception  of  this  law  was  as  far  observed. 

§§  Seven  and  eight  which  treat  of  the  sky  and  the 
periods  of  creation  of  the  earth  conta  n  not  much  of 
interest;  for  that  reason  I  pass  them  by. 

ORIGINAL  GENERATION. 

§  9:- — In  the  first  jura-  and  tertiary  period,  many 
amphibious  and  mammalious  animals  became  extinct, 
e.  g.,  the  mastodon,  and  several  pachyderms.  Remains 
of  man  first  occur  in  alluvial  layers.  The  organic 
beings  were  different  in  different  periods,  according  to 
Special  condition  in  which  earth  was  at  every  time. 
So  it  is  yet  to-day,  e.  g.,  in  a  forest,  cleared  of  pine  trees 
oaks  and  beeches  grow. 

Most  of  naturalists  believe  that  all  men  may  descend 
from  one  progenitor,  and  that  the  various  races  by  and 
by  could  be  produced  by  external  influences.  But 
it  seems  to  Mr.  Buchner  that  mankind  does  not  descend 
only  from  several,  but  from  many  couples.  The  pecu- 
liarities of  the  different  botanic  and  geological  provinces 
of  the  earth,  and  the  manifold  languages  speak  for  this 
opinion,  The  lowest  organic  forms  gradually  developed 
to  higher  ones.  We  find,  in  the  oldest  remainders  of 
fossilized  animals  and  plants,  the  accordant  prefigura- 
tions  of  later  organizations,  e.  g.,  the  Pleiosaurus  had 
the  rump  of  the  whale,  the  neck  of  the  bird,  the  head  of 
the  alligator.  He  repeated  and  modified  himself  in 
innumerable  species.  An  uninterrupted  series  of 
transitions  connects  the  whole  animal  world.  The 


tOl)  MATTER    ASfD    FORC  K 

Aethiopian  race  which  has  long  arms,  and  fleshless  shins 
bones  connects  man  with  the  animal  world,  e.  g,,  with 
the  apes.  The  Pesherais,  the  inhabitants  of  Van  Die- 
man's  and  New  Holland  etc.,  come  also  near  to  the 
animal  world.  The  same  germs  could  be  brought  by 
different  external  circumstances,  to  very  hetrogen ions- 
developments.  When  the  external  conditions  were 
lost,  many  formations  perished,  and  new  ones  were 
generated.  Once,  these  influences  caused  greater  effects; 
because  the  temperature  was  higher.  One  time,  palms 
flourished,  and  larger  animals  lived  in  the  Saxon  Erz- 
gebirge.  Besides,  butterflies,  frogs,  vine-fretters  etc,? 
show  yet  a  true  change  of  the  species.  In  a  similar 
way,  the  first  man  could  also  be  born  by  a  lowrer  animaL 
If  not  so,  what  for  Avere  a  law  of  gradual  development 
and  formation  from  prototypes  ?  If  there  were  a  crea- 
tor, he  could  have  done  his  work  easier.  On  the  con- 
trary, Nature  created  slowly,  according  to  the  Latin 
proverb:  "In  natura  no  saltus  datur,"— in  nature  there 
is  no  leap.  To  be  sure,  man,  once  came  nearer  to  the 
animal  form.  On  the  lake  of  Titicaca  skull?  of  men 
were  found  wrhich  differ  from  all  of  the  living  ones,, 
having  facial  bones  lengthened  like  those  of  the  apes. 

TELEOLOGY  IN  NATURE, 

§  10. — Some  philosophers  and  many  theologian?  a  - 
sent:  "there  is  a  creator,  for  the  world  is  constituted  to 
a  purpose.  The  beauty  of  flowers,  the  wise  arrange- 
ment of  the  stars,  and  of  many  other  natural  objects 
prove  this  assertion  to  be  true.  Substances  and  forces 
caused  constructions  which  prepose  each  other,  and  con- 
sequently seem  to  have  been  produced  by  an  infinite 
intellect."  Still,  wTe  can  imagine  many  of  these  con  - 
st ructions  more  perfect.  True,  the  animals  of  northern 
countries  have  a  tighter  fur  in  the  winter:  but  this  is  >o 


MATTER    AND    FORCE.  107 

according  to  the  circumstances  of  temperature.  Nature 
•commits  many  ridiculous  and  perverse  actions,  e.  g.,  she 
increases  pernicious  animals  (field-mice,  grass-hop pers), 
and  decreases  useful  ones,  like  the  giant-stag;  she  ad- 
mits a  legion  of  diseases,  the  human  passions  and  cruel- 
£y,  and,  in  general  many  physical  evils.  The  younger 
and  less  cultivated  a  people  is,  the  more  heinious  are  its 
actions.  How  many  cruelties  Nature  every  hour  per- 
petrates on  her  creatures!  "But  do  you  not  admire  the 
beautiful  colors  of  the  flowers?"  True,  the  diver  sees  the 
finest  flowers  and  forms  of  animals  in  the  sea;  but  to 
what  purpose  is  this  display  of  beauty  which  no  eye  per- 
ceives? What  are  miscarriages  good  for  e.  g.,  of  goats 
without  heads?  Again  we  are  answered:  "the  Creator 
let  certain  plants  grow  against  certain  diseases.'1 
There  are  not  such  medicines,  and  the  Creator  would 
have  better  omitted  the  creation  of  both.— "The  plants 
nourish  the  animals."The  plants  give  up  their  carbon  to 
the  animals,  and  these  deposit  it  again  in  the  exterior 
world,  to  the  use  of  plants.  This  is  the  eternal  circulat- 
ion of  natural  phenomena,  the  necessary  course  effected 
by  the  mutual  relation  of  things.  How  slowly  created 
Nature!  e.  g.,  Paris  is  built  with  stones  which  originated 
from  the  shells  of  animalcules  two  hundred  millions  of 
which  had  room  in  a  cubic-foot.  "The  whole  earth  has 
been  produced  by  the  benevolent  creator."  It  is  not  so; 
the  earth  had  no  men  for  a  long  period;  even  now,  there 
are,  comparatively,  few  men  living  on  earth.  Nature 
does  nothing  for  the  sake  of  man;  her  aim  is  directed  to 
herself.  The  provisions  of  the  earth  can  also  be  ex- 
hausted in  a  future  time,  and  man  will  then  perish. 

HRAIX  AND  SOl'L. 

§   11. — The  brain  is  the    organ  of  thinking;  its   size, 
form  and  manner  of  composition  are  in    a  direct  ratio  to 


108  MATTER    ASD    FORCE". 


the  greatness  and  force  of  mental  function  which  to  it 
is  inherent.  The  same  law  rules  in  all  classes  of  animals. 
Animals  which  hare  only  knots  of  nerves,  instead  of 
brain,  are  on  the  lowest  scale  of  development.  Man 
has  absolutely  and  relatively  the  largest  brain.  Among 
animals,  the  elephant,  the  dolphi  i  and  the  dog  possess 
the  greatest;  the  am  hibia  and  fish,  the  smallest  brain. 
The  coilings,  furrows,  branches,  and  seeming  irregulari- 
ties of  the  brain,  also,  cause  a  great  difference  in  the 
activity  of  human  and  animal  brain.  The  weight  of 
the  human  brain  increases  until  the  25th  year,  remain 
about  the  same  lotil  the  50th,  and  from  that  time  grad- 
ually diminishes.  The  brain  of  old  men  become 
smaller,  tougher  and  more  gray,  resembling  that  of 
children  in  chemical  composition,  and  shrink;  its 
quantity  of  blood  diminishes,  and  the  coilings  grow 
more  narrow.  The  brain  of  man  weighs  on  an  average 
50,  that  of  woman,  44  ounces.  The  brain  of  Cuvier? 
the  eminent  French  naturalist,  weighed  61  ounces. 
Idiots  and  the  cretins  in  Switzerland  have  less  brain, 
and  smaller  heads.  The  more  from  the  brain  of  man 
or  animal  is  taken  off,  the  feebler  the  functions  of  this 
organ  become.  The  brain  is  with  the  nerves  closely 
connected.  Cultivation  and  vigor  of  mind  strengthen 
and  conserve  the  body.  Afflictions  of  the  body,  inver- 
sely, re-act  and  injuriously  upon  the  mind,  e.  g.,  an  in- 
flamation  of  the  brain  enfeebles  it  much,  and  sometimes 
causes  raving  and  insanity:  The  forehead  of  cultiva- 
ted nations  is  vaulted,  the  occiput  smoothed.  The 
brain  receives,  in  proportion,  more  blood  from  the 
heart  than  any  other  organ  of  the  body.  As  for  the  rest, 
Buchner  remarks  that  we  are  still  deficient  of  a  perfect 
knowledge  of  the  brain. 

The  adversaries  of  the  class  of  naturalists    to   which 


MATTER    AND    FORCE.  109 


Buchner  belongs  claim  that  the  brain  is  too  simple  in 
order  to  be  able  to  produce  some  spiritual  effect.  But 
he  answers  that  it  only  seems  so,  while  the  brain,  in 
fact,  is  a  very  complicated  organ,  as  it  has  before  been 
intimated.  And  even  supposed  that  it  is  so:  Nature 
produces,  also  by  simple  means,  great  effects,  e.  g.,  some 
drops  of  sperm  suffice  to  create  man,  to  form  children 
similar  to  the  parents,  and  even  to  propogate  their 
mental  qualities.  Or,  a  sunbeam  dries  up  an  infusor- 
ium; it  remains  in  this  state  for  years;  a  drop  of  water 
revives  it,  and,  perhaps,  it  goes,  once  more,  through  the 
same  fate.  Consequently,  can  the  soul  of  the  animal- 
cule be  independent  from  matter  ?  Where  was  the 
former,  while  the  latter  was  lying  in  deadly  sleep?  It 
follows  that  brain  and  mind  are  inseparable. 

THOUGHT. 

§  12. — Buchner,  in  this  section,  examines  the  cause 
and  essence  of  thought.  He  quotes  Moleschott,  who 
asserted  that  the  mind  is  a  motion  of  matter.  In  his 
opinion,  the  nerves  create  electric  currents  etc.,  etc. 

THE  SEAT  OF  THE  SOUL. 

§  13. — It  has  been,  since  olden  times,  a  much  dis- 
puted question  as  to  the  location  of  the  soul.  Plato 
thought  that  it  is  in  the  brain;  the  Greek  philosopher 
Heraclit  and  the  Jews  found  it  in  the  blood;  a  modern 
philosopher,  Cartesius,  pineal  gland,  a  little  organ,  ly- 
ing in  the  inside  of  the  skull;  the  famous  physician 
Somerig  in  the  ventricles  of  the  brain;  the  philosopher 
of  Konigsberg,  Kant,  in  the  water  of  the  cavity  of  the 
brain;  Ennemoser  in  the  entire  body;  Fischer  in  the 
whole  system  of  the  nerves.  Buchner  refutes,  in  de- 
tail, the  opinion  of  the  last  one,  viz.,  he  states  that  the 
nerves  lead  only  the  feeling  to  the  brain.  If  a  nerve  is 
cut  through  between  the  brain  and  its  end,  the  feeling 


110  MATTER    AND    FORCE. 


of  the  parts  of  the  body  to  which  it  passes,  ceases,  e.  g., 
if  the  nerve  between  the  brain  and  stomach  is  cut,  the 
sensation  of  hunger  disappears;  if  it  is  the  optic  nerve, 
seeing  is  at  an  end.  It  is  only  exterior  appearance,  if  we 
(erroneously)  transfer  the  feeling  which  is  caused  in  the 
brain  to  the  place  where  we  see  the  incitement  acting.  It  is 
rather  indifferent  as  to  the  spot  where  the  nerve  is  broken: 
we  always  feel  its  incitement  only  at  its  peripheric  exten- 
sion; e.  g,  if  Ave  strike  our  elbow  against  something,  we 
feel  the  pain  in  the  fingers.  Maimed  people  feel,  at 
the  change  of  weather,  pain  in  the  amputated  hands 
and  feet.  Every  place  of  the  body  which  seperately  is 
felt  must  also  have,  in  brain,  a  spot  exactly  correspon- 
ding to  it  which,  in  some  way,  represents  it  before  the 
forum  of  consciousnes.  It  can  also  easily  happen  that 
an  incitement  conveyed  to  such  a  central  point  by  its 
respective  nerve  is  not  confined  to  this  point,  but  is  com- 
municated to  some  adjoining  points  of  incitement  which 
sympathize  with  it,  e.  g.,  if  we  have  a  sore  tooth,  we 
feel  pain  in  all  teeth. 

The  same  of  the  feelings,  is  also  true  of  the  incite- 
ments of  will.  The  will  does  not  incite  some  movement 
in  the  muscles,  but  only  in  the  brain.  The  acts  of  the 
will  can  not  but  in  this  be  brought  about.  The  nerves 
are  the  conductors  of  these  incitements  and  motions  of 
the  muscles.  If  this  conduct  is  destroyed,  every  act  of 
will  ceases,  e.  g.,  men  are  lamed,  if  their  spinal  marrow 
is  injured.  The  commencements  of  the  nerves  which 
are  moved  by  the  will  must  also,  like  those  of  the  feel- 
ings are  expand  sd  at  certain  points  of  the  brain,  in 
order  to  be  moved  separately,  like  the  keys  of  a  piano, 
by  the  will.  We  do  not  always  succeed  in  this;  for  in- 
stead to  move  one;  we  move,  sometimes,  all  fingers  to- 
gether, against  our  will  and  children  move  the  whole 


•511111 


MATTER    AND    FORCE.  Ill 

body,  if  they  will  execute  the  least  motion.  Sometimes 
a  sprained  joint  of  the  neck  compresses  the  upper  part 
of  the  spinal-marrow  so  much  that  all  connection  be- 
tween brain  and  body  is  suspended.  In  this  condition, 
breathing  and  pulsation  of  the  heart,  indeed,  continue, 
but  the  body  is  senseless.  In  the  same  way,  if  the  brain 
of  chickens  is  taken  away,  they  show  no  more  feeling, 
and  resemble  living  corpses.  These  facts  prove  that 
the  soul  can  not  have  its  seat  in  the  whole  body.  Fin- 
ally some  believe  that  the  soul  sometimes  can  live  in 
the  sympathetic  nerve  which  is  situated  in  the  abdo- 
men; and  that  in  this  case,  this  nerve  becomes  the  caus;< 
of  the  nocturnal  life  of  soul,  therefrom  the  magnetic 
sleep,  "the  clair-voy-ance"  (clear-sightedness),  the  som- 
nambulism with  its  pretended  wonders  originate.  They 
continue  to  assert  that  the  soul,  in  this  condition,  is 
able  to  see  into  the  world  to  come,  to  summon  spirits 
and  to  perform  other  apparitions  of  spirits,  to  effect 
sympathetic  or  miraculous  cures,  to  read  in  shut  books, 
if  they  are  put  upon  the  navel  &c.  But  first,  the  sy  - 
pathetic  nerve  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  soul,  because 
it  has  its  seat  in  the  abdomen,  oecond,  it  is  known 
that  similar  wonders  were  performed  already  in  ancient 
times,  e.  g.,  by  the  priestess  Pythia  when  she  was  seated 
in  the  temple  of  Delphi  upon  her  golden  tripod,  and 
promulgated  her  oracles  to  the  credulous;  but  who 
believes  now  a-days  such  stories?  Similar  reports  which 
here  and  there,  in  our  time,  are  put  in  circulation  and 
believed  by  simpletons  prove,  after  a  closer  investigation, 
to  be  illusion  or  fraud.  In  1837,  the  'icadamy  of  Paris 
proposed  a  public  prize  of  3000  francs  for  him  \vlio\voiild 
be  able  to  read  through  a  board.  The  prize  was  pro- 
posed for  3  years.  Nobody  competed  for  it.  Many 
similar  cases  are  reported  in  the  medical  annals.  With 


MATTER    .4^TD    FORCE. 


regard  to  walking  in  sleep  too  few  observations  have 
been  made  in  order  to  be  able  to  pass  sentence  on  the 
reports;  but  it  is  self-evident  that  it  is  also  impossible 
for  one  who  walks  in  his  sleep  to  climb  up  walls,  and 
to  speak  in  unknown  languages. 

INNATE    IDEAS. 

§  14. —  A  Latin  proverb  says:  Nihil  est  in  intellectu, 
quod  not  fuerit  in  sensu/v  (Nothing  is  in  mind  what  not 
was  in  sense).  The  new  born  child  does  not  think. 
Soul  originates  and  developes  by  sensual  perceptions, 
instruction,  education,  example  and  exercise;  in  this 
manner  inner  images  of  the  exterior  world,  notions  and 
conceptions  begin  to  exist.  The  blind  and  the  deaf 
(since  birth)  do  not  know  colors  or  sounds  and  lan- 
guage. The  greater  the  number  of  institutions,  the 
higher  mental  culture  will  be.  Some  scholars  affirm 
that  the  idea  of  truth,  honesty,  right  and  beauty  are 
common  with  all  men  and  nations.  It  is  not  so,  they 
are  very  different  with  them.  The  savage  adorns  him- 
self with  a  -ing  in  the  nose;  some  of  our  fashions  are 
far  from  being  beautiful;  the  Chinese  imagine  that  big 
bellies  and  small  feet  are  pretty.  The  savages  commit 
monstrous  cruelties,  are  propense  to  theft,  vengeance&c. 
Even  cultivated  nations  differ  in  their  notions  of  honesty 
and  justice  e.  g.,  the  Romans  were  permitted  to  kill 
their  new  born  children;  i  was  virtuous  with  them  to 
hate  the  ?nemy;  it  is  not  so  with  Christians.  The  Ro- 
mans and  Greeks  were,  in  public,  not  very  bashful. 
Some  laws  of  state  and  religion  contradict  the  dictates 
o;f  natural  law  and  morals.  The  higher  culture  rises, 
the  more  disappear  crimes  and  immorality.  The  con- 
ception of  truth  is  developed  with  the  progress  of  sci- 
ence; e.  g.,  of  mathematics.  Usually  it  is  said  that 
animals  act  according  to  their  innate  instinct.  Accord- 


MATTER    AND    FORCE.  113 

ing  to  Buchner  this  is  a  mistake.  Animals  think  and 
learn  like  men,  by  the  influence  of  their  environment, 
their  parents,  masters  &c.  The  hound  who  is  trained  in 
the  house,  shows  no  inclination  for  hunting.  The  night- 
ingale does  not  sing,  if  she  is  trained  in  solitude;  she 
le 7  rns  to  sing  only  from  other  birds.  The  bee  does  not 
always  build  cells  of  six  angles,  and  does  not  build  at 
all,  if  artificial  ones  are  put  before  her. 

THE  GOD  IDEA. 

§  15. —  As  there  are  no  innate  ideas,  generally,  there 
is  also  no  innate  idea  of  an  absolute  being,  of  God.  The 
believers  in  God  answer:  "  All  individuals  and  nations 
have  such  an  idea.  "  Answer:  "  Savage  nations  only 
adore  a  beast,  e.  g.,  a  cow,a  serpent,  a  crocodile,  or  a 
stone,  a  block,  a  tree,  a  river:"  their  gods  are  idols,  which 
they  venerate,  because  they  are  afraid  cf  the  forces  of 
Na  ,ure,  they  are  ignorant.  A  beast  is  less  than  a  man, 
is  no  God,  but  a  bug-bear.  Many  people  have  no  idea 
of  God  at  all,  e.  g.,  many  Indian  tribes.  The  original 
religion^of  Buddha  knows  nothing  of  God  and  immortal- 
ity; not  more  the  two  systems  of  religion  of  the  Chinese 
who  not  even  have  expressions  in  their  language  for  the 
ideas  of  God  and  immortality.  The  notiop  of  a  personal 
God  originated  with  the  Jews,  and  passed  from  them  to 
Christians  and  Mohamedans.  Individuals  who  grow  up 
without  education,  deaf  and  mute  etc.,  have  neither  an 
an  idea  of  God.  There  are  still  more  men  who  believe 
in  demons;  but,  therefore,  are  there  demons  ?  All  no- 
tions of  God  are  anthropomorphisms,  ideals  of  man  him- 
self, different  according  to  the  condition  of  his  cultiva- 
tion. Consequently  the  gods  of  the  Greeks  were  se- 
rene; Jehovah  of  the  Jews  was  irascible.  Just  so  the 
divine  service  is  different  the  heathens  sacrificed  meat 


114  MATTER    AND    FORCE. 

and  wine;  the  Ostiake  stuffs  tobacco  into  the  11033  of 
his  idol.  The  idea  of  divinity,  expanded  in  the  whole 
universe,  is  also  untenable. 

CONTINUATION  OF  PERSONAL  EXISTENCE. 

§  16: — The  soul  originates  with  the  brain,  grows, 
decreases  and  is  taken  sick  with  it.  Lasting  separa- 
tion of  both  is  impossible.  The  spirit  cannot  be  imag- 
ined without  a  body,  exactly  as  no  electricity  or  mag- 
netism without  metal.  The  soul  is  the  product  of  ex- 
terior things  which  exert  in  a  given  time,  their  influence 
upon  it,  and  without  which  it  never  would  have  gained 
an  existence.  The  spiritual  essence  must  come  to  an 
end,  if  its  material  foundation  perishes,  if  that  essence 
departs  from  those  environs  by  which  alone  becomes  a 
person  conscious  of  itself.  All  knowledge,  fallen  to 
the  share  of  this  being  refers  to  earthly  things;  it 
has  recognized  itself,  and  has  become  conscious  of 
itself  only  in,  with,  and  by  these  things:  it  has  be- 
come a  person  only  by  stepping  opposite  of  earthen, 
limited  individualities;  how  should  it  be  abb  to  last 
with  conciousness  as  this  person,  if  separated  from 
these  conditions?  The  author  then  refutes  the  objections 
which  usually  are  made  against  these  views.  First, 
they  say  that  there  is  no  absolute  annihilation  of 
things,  that,  therefore,  human  spirit  can  neither  be 
destroyed.  Buchner  replies:  Matter  shows  its  indes- 
tructibility in  a  sensual  manner,  but  not  the  spirit,  as 
it  is  the  product  of  a  certain  union  of  materials  which 
are  endowed  with  peculiar  forces;  if  they  perish  and 
enter  other  conjunctions,that  effect  of  forces  which  we 
called  soul  must  also  disappear.  As  the  artificial  play 
of  a  clock  is  at  an  end,  if  its  essential  parts  are  dis- 
joined: thus  is  also  the  condition  of  human  spirit.  Soul 
was  in  fact,  during  an  eternity,  not  existing,  consequent- 


MATTER    AND    FORCE.  115 

iy  nothing,  if  it  were  indestructible,  it  must  have  existed 
eternally;  for  anything  which  once  had  no  existence,  can 
again  perish;  nay,  all  that  originates  must  finally  pass 
away.  Sleep  furnishes  an  example  of  the  annihilation 
of  spirit.  During  it  the  functions  of  the  organ  of 
thought  is  suspended,  and  therefore  the  soul  in  the  prop* 
er  sense  of  the  word  is  annihilated.  If  we  awake,  it  find? 
itself  exactly  where  it  forgot  itself,  as  we  fell  asleep. 
Sleep  and  death  are  brothers.  It  is  of  no  use  to  rejoin 
that  the  soul  manifests  its  efficacy  also  during  sleep  at 
least  by  dreams;  for  these  only  mark  the  time  of  transi- 
tion from  sleep  to  the  state  of  watching;  if  we  begin  to 
dream,  we  are  already  half  awake;  deep  sleep 
does  not  have  any  dreams.  Shocks  and  hurts 
of  the  body  sometimes  cause  mental  diseases 
which  can  entirely  suspend  the  consciousness  and 
keep  up,  for  months,  the  absence  of  mind;  if  they 
are  at  an  end,  the  convalescents  can  by  no  means  re- 
member the  events  which  passed  during  this  long  time. 
Many  believe  the  spiritual  matter  to  be  part  of  the 
universal  soul  of  the  world  to  which  the  soul  returns 
after  death  A  spiritual  matter !  That  means,  indeed 
a  square  circle.  Others  say  that  the  soul  passe  in  a 
more  refined  body.  But  any  body  is  furnished  with 
the  finest  organs,  and  its  species  cannot  finer  be  imag- 
ined. "But  the  thought  of  eternal  annihilation  is  at 
variance  with  our  inmost  feelings."  It  may  be  so,  but 
what  results  from  such  a  logic  of  feelings  ?  Do  not 
diseases,  distress,  poverty  and  calamities,  also  hurt  our 
feelings,  though  for  all  that  they  do  not  di  appear? 
The  question  of  an  everlasting  spirit  is  not  answered 
here  by  the  language  of  desirous  feelings,  but  examined 
from  a  scientific  standpoint.  Some  modern  phil- 
osophers assert  that  the  zeal  for  mental  accomplish- 


lit)  MATTER    AND    FORCE. 


ment  and  progressive  knowledge  demands  the  immor- 
tality of  spirit.  Yet,  then,  the  second  life  would  be  a 
repetition  of  the  tirst,  and  represent  the  same  contradic- 
tions and  defects,  like  this.  Must  the  deficient  educa- 
tion of  the  people  and  children,  beyond  the  grave,  be 
continued?  Who  would  like  to  be  seated  again  on  the 
school  banks?  According  to  the  construction  of  the 
sky  and  of  the  laws  of  Nature  there  can  no  room  be  im- 
agined beyond  the  earth  where  the  souls  which  are 
delivered  from  the  fetters  of  matter  could  assemble. 
Who  can  count  the  number  of  the  souls  since  the  death 
ol  the  first  men?  Where  c*n  they|fmd  abodes?  Finally, 
many  appeal  to  the  generality  by  which  single  individ- 
uals and  whole  nations  do  homage  to  the  belief  in  im- 
mortality. This  assertion  is  contradicted  by  daily  ex- 
perience, and  by  history;  e.g.,  the  Jews  had  not  such  a 
belief  before  the  captivity  in  Babylonia.  The  followers 
ofConfu.se  and  Buddha  do  not  believe  in  an  eternal 
existence,  now  a-days,  and  the  reformer  of  Buddhism 
maintains  the  views  o±  modern  natural  philosophy. 
There  is  no  trace  of  such  a  faith  among  many  people 
living  in  a  natural  state.  The  Greeks  were  only  ac- 
quainted with  a  world  of  phantoms.  Among  the  Ro- 
mans this  faith  was  seldom  found,  and  so  it  is  generally 
with  civilized  nations  and  individuals,  though  they  do 
not  speak  their  opinions  in  public.  To  these  belong  e.  g. , 
Seneca,  Horace,  Voltaire,  Mirabeau,  Danton,  Frederick 
II.,  Burmeister,  Moleschott,  K,  Vogt,  Dr.  David  Strauss, 
and  Feuerbach.  The  latter  one  says  with  this  regard: 
"  Who  can,  if  he  has  two  sound  eyes  in  his  head,  ignore 
that  the  belief  in  an  individual  continuation  of  life  has 
long  ago  disappeared  from  general  life,  that  it  not  exists 
but  in  the  subjective  imagination  of  single,  though  innu- 
merable persons. "  And  how  can  the  general  fear  of 


MATTER    AND    FORCE.  117 

death  be  explained,  notwithstanding  the  consolations  of 
religion  which  continually  resound  from  the  pulpits 
of  the  theologians? 

VITAL    POWERS. 

§  17.—  The  fundamental  elements  of  matter  are 
the  same  in  both,  the  inorganic  and  organic  world; 
there  is  no  special  force  (vital  power)  in  the  organic 
beings;  this  force  is  no  principle,  but  a  result.  The 
functions  of  breathing,  digestion,  assimilation  and  se- 
cretion take  place  in  a  chemical  way.  Oxygen,  hy- 
drogen, nitrogen,  carbon  enter  into  the  chemi  cal  com- 
binations of  the  body;  e.  g.,  Oxygen  of  air  imparts 
the  red  color  to  the  blood  of  the  veins.  Quite  as 
distinctly  speak  the  mechanical  functions,  aicording 
to  the  physical  laws,  e.  g.,  the  air  causes  noise  on 
the  walls  of  the  windpipe;  the  intestines  promote  di- 
gestion by  their  worm-like  movement;  the  muscles 
bring  about  the  movement  of  the  feet  and  other  limbs; 
the  eye  acts  like  a  camera  obscura  &c. 

THE    SOUL    OF    ANIMALS. 

§  18. —  The  soul  of  animals  differs  from  that  of  men 
by  quantity,  not  quality.  Animals  do  not  act  by  instinct, 
as  if  having  no  will:  they  consider,  gather  experie  nee, 
recollect,  take  care  of  the  future,  like  men;  their  doings 
are  the  effluence  of  conscious,  spiritual  activity.  The 
fox  builds  by  reflection,  a  den  with  two  egresses,  and 
steals  the  chickens  at  a  time  when,  as  he  knows,  master 
and  servants  are  absent  (at  the  meal).  Dujardin  and 
Vogt  tell  us  of  the  intellect  of  the  bees,  Burdach  of  the 
good  sense  of  the  crows,  Vogt  of  the  dolphins  and  of 
the  training  of  a  young  dog  by  an  old  one.  The  eleph- 
ants and  apes  are  generally  known  for  their  cleverness. 

When  a  swallow  returned,  in  spring,  to  her  nest,  she 
found  it  occupied  by  a  sparrow.  She  began  to  shut  the 


118  MATTER    AND    FORCE. 

entry  by  mud,  and  thereby  forced  the  intruder  to  move 
out.  Dujardin  placed  in  a  niche,  far  from  a  hive,  a  cup 
of  sugar.  A  bee  saw  it,  flew  around  it,  and  pushed  with 
her  head  against  the  boarders  of  the  niche  to  give  a  sig- 
nal to  her  fellow-  bees;  she  then  flew  away,  and  return- 
ed with  them.  Many  animals  which  live  in  community, 
choose  a  general  leader,  and  submit  freely  to  his  orders. 
Think  of  the  guards  of  the  chamois!  The  apes,  too, 
put  out  sentinels;  they  call  now  and  then  to  each  other: 
at  the  least  cry  of  alarm,  they  all  stop  and  listen,  till  a 
second  cry  of  different  kind  puts  them  all  again  march  - 
ing.  Can  such  actions  be  done  without  mutual  com- 
munication? Besides,  they  say  that  animal  language 
can  not  be  cultivated.  But  we  know  nothing  of  the 
cultivation  of  their  language,  because  we  do  not  under- 
stand it.  There  is  a  difference  between  the  sounds  of 
tame  and  wild  animals  of  the  same  species.  Animals 
can  also  be  educated,  e.  g.,  dogs;  their  dressing  advances 
slowly,  because  we  can  not  communicate  directly  with 
them,  but  they  must  be  instructed  like  the  deaf  and 
dumb.  Finally,  they  assert  that  human  reason,  by  its 
own  impulse,  is  capable  of  culture.  Still  it  is  not  so 
with  regard  to  the  lowest  races;  and  even  mankind,  as 
a  unity,  wanted,  in  general,  a  long  time  in  order  to  re- 
ceive an  impulse  for  civilization. 

FREE  WILL. 

§  19. — Man  is  a  product  of  Nature  (also  in  regard 
to  his  spiritual  essence);  therefore  that  what  he  thinks 
feels,  will  and  does,  rests  on  such  a  necessity  of 
Nature  as  the  construction  of  the  Universe.  Spinoza 
says:  "Human  liberty  (of  which  all  are  boasting) 
only  consists  therein  that  man  is  conscious  of  his 
will,  and  unconscious  of  the  cause  by  which  he  is 
moved."  The  statistics  furnish  the  proofs.  Once  for 


MATTER    AND    FORCE.  llH 

all,  only  the  smallest  elbow-room,  often  none  at  all,  is 
left  for  our  free  choice.  Examples:  "  The  dry  table- 
lands of  interior  Africa  are  inhabited  by  the  nervy, 
barbarous,  dwarfish  Bushmen;  on  the  contrary,  the  rich 
crown-lands  of  the  northern  part,  by  the  most  civilized 
race,  the  Ovanipos." — Gait  on.  "The  history  and  cus> 
toms  of  the  American  Indians  can  easily  be  reduced  to 
the  variety  of  land  which  they  inhabit." — Desor.  The 
loftiness  of  the  development  of  the  United  States  is, 
perhaps  in  a  great  part,  a  consequence  of  climatic  con- 
ditions. In  the  nature  of  the  Englishman,  his  cloudy 
foggy  sky,  in  the  character  of  the  Italian,  his  perma- 
nent blue  sky  manifests  itself.  The  mankind  is  in  the 
high  north  and  south  not  much  capable  of  culture.  It 
obtains,  by  degrees,  its  mental  culture  only  there  where 
climate,  soil,  and  the  exterior  conditions  of  the  surface 
of  earth  keep  a  middle  equipoise. 

The  single  man,  also,  is  a  product  of  exterior  and  in-, 
ternal  effects  of  nature,  not  only  in  his  entire  physical 
and  moral  substance,  but  also  in  every  special  moment 
of  his  actions.  They  depend  on  his  mental  individu- 
ality, which  in  every  single  case  leaves  him  very  little 
free  room,  being  the  product  of  innate  physical  and  men- 
tal faculties,  joint  with  education,  instruction,  example, 
rank,  fortune,  sex,  nationality,  climate,  soil,  circum- 
stances of  tim  ,  etc.  Some  ones  are  inclined  to  benevo- 
lence, others  to  consciousness,  others  to  frivolity,  or  to 
destroy,  or  to  have  children,  or  to  severity.  Reflection 
can  oppose  to  man  but  a  feeble  obstacle,  religion  mostly 
none  at  all.  Man  likes  always  to  follow  his  nature, 
Often  we  know  (according  to  our  individuality)  which 
fault  we  shall  commit;  nevertheless  we  are  not  strong 
enough  to  contend  against  it  with  success.  The  youn^ 
and  excited  man  thinks  differently  from  the  old  and 


120  MATTER    AND    FOROE. 


calm  one.  Physical  sufferings  are  often  the  cause  of 
crime.  Most  crimes  originate  in  passion,  ignorance, 
want  of  culture  and  poverty.  Therefore  we  should  do 
best  to  judge  and  condemn  nobody.  "Why,  you  deny 
imputation  and  capability  to  be  imputed  ?  If  the  crim- 
inal is  not  punished,  State  and  law  is  overthrown." 
Buchner  answers:  The  State  has  the  right  of,  defense 
against  assault  of  its  safety;  still  man  has  also  the  feel- 
ing of  compassion  and  placability  for  the  culpable,  and 
prefers,  by  humane  mind,  those  means  which  prevent 
crimes  to  those  which  punish  them.  Civil  society  rests 
upo.,i  the  principles  pf  necessity  and  reciprocity.  Ne- 
cessity is  identical  with  the  here  given  explanation  of 
free  will  and  is  not  directly,  but  only  mediately  and  in 
a  very  low  degree  disturbed  by  the  diversity  of  the 
view  of  the  universe.  As  far  as  the  principle  of  ne- 
cessity is  not  efficacious,  a  proportion  of  reciprocity 
takes  its  place.  The  views  of  God  and  of  the  Universe, 
or  the  moral  motives  which  must  suffer  from  the  natur- 
alistic intuition  of  the  Universe  exert  no  great  in- 
fluence upon  the  machinery  of  human  society.  Even 
the  virtue  of  our  modern  society  is,  for  the  most  part, 
sugared  sin.  Does  this  society  really  act  according  to 
divine  or  moral  impulses?  There  is  a  general  racing  to 
outrun  each  other.  Men  are  starving  in  the  sight  of 
well  supplied  shambles.  All  Pharisees,  Pieties ts,  and 
Jesuits  combat  furiously  this  view  of  the  Universe,  but 
from  it,  perhaps,  an  edifice  will  rise  which  rests  upon 
the  acknowledgment  of  equal  human  rights. 

CONCLUSION. 

§  20. — A  general  combat  is  imminent  to  this  intuition 
of  the  world.  But  Virchow  says:  "The  natural  phi- 
losopher not  knows  but  matter  and  its  qualities,  and 
calls  transcendent  what  ever  is  over  that.  Almost  all 


MATTER    AND    FORCE.  121 

schools  of  philosophy  mark  out  a  transcendent  scope; 
the  experience  of  all  times  has  shown  how  useless  such 
a  struggle  is."  The  adversaries  object:  "According  to 
your  doctrine  let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  tomorrow  we  do 
not  more  exist."  Buchner  replies*  "And  according  to 
your  theory  locomotives  and  matches  must  also  be  for- 
bidden. Great  philosophers  also  did  homage  to  the 
principles  of  materialism,  and  now  a-days  the  most  act- 
ive thinkers  confess  them.  Their  efforts  for  knowledge 
and  truth,  and  their  persuasion  that  social  and  moral 
order  is  necessary,  compensates  them  easily  for  that 
wht  the  ruling  notion  points  out  as  religion  and  time 
to  come.  Our  age  is  as  eager  for  pleasure  as  that  of  the 
Greeks.  We  want  to  appear  otherwise  as  we  are." 
"The  hypocrisy  of  self-delusion  is  the  fundamental 
vice  of  the  present  time.  "  Feuerbach. — Nature  does 
not  exist  for  the  sake  of  religion,  morals  and  men,  but 
for  her  own  sake.  What  can  we  do  but  take  her  as 
she  is?  Truth  is  not  always  agreeable,  but  it  conceals  an 
interior  charm  in  itselt! 

A  TRIP  TO   THE  YELLOWSTONE  NATIONAL 

PARK  IN  WYOMING  TERRITORY  OF 

THE  UNITED  STATES. 

By  Maj.  Ouer.  Published,  with  his  permission,  from  his  Diary. 

During  the  circuit  journey  I  made,  in  1885,  through 
the  United  States,  I  arrived,  the  15  th,  of  July,  via  Bis- 
mark,  in  Livingston,  and  intended  to  pass  from  there, 
the  next  day,  at  two  o'clock  P.  M.  to  the  Yellowstone 
National  Park,  in  Wyoming  Territory.  To  this  pur- 
pose, 1  had  bought  a  summer  tourists  ticket  for  40  dol- 
lars. We  arrived  at  .6  o'clock  P.  M.5  in  Cinnabar,  the 
last  station,  where  a  four  horse  stage  was  ready  for  our 
furtherance.  After  a  ride  of  2-i  hours,  up  the  mountains, 


122  MATTER    AND    FORCE. 

we  arrived  at  the  "Improvement  Company"  Hotel  of 
the  "Mammoth  Hot  Springs"  which  is  situated  5300 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  We  supplied  us  with  a 
shelter  and  with  board.  The  17th  of  July,  at  7  o'clock, 
A.  M.,  we  continued  our  journey  in  four  horse  stages 
from  the  basin  of  the  Upper  Geyser,  to  the  Yellowstone 
Geysers.  At  12  o'clock  of  noon  we  arrived  at  the 
intermediate  station  of  Norris  Geyser  Basin,  where  we 
took  our  dinner,  in  tents.  The  hot  springs,  with  their 
volcanic  Geysers,  commence,  2  or  3  miles  beyond  the 
Norris  Geyser  Hotel. 

I  must  make  here  a  few  remarks  concerning  the  vege- 
tation of  the  plants  and  flowers  which  grow  between 
the  hotel  of  Mammoth  Hot  Springs  and  the  Morris 
Geyser  basin.  I  saw  flowers  (e,  g.,  the  flowers  they 
call  "Marguerite")  twenty  feet  high  which  flourished  in 
most  luxurious  brightness.  This  is  the  general  height 
of  the  flowers  which  only  a  land  of  wonders  (and  such 
an  one  is  the  Yellowstone  Park,)  can  procreate.  Com- 
mon wild  grass  grows  here  from  8^  to  10  feet  high,  and 
rather  resembles  Pampas-grass  than  the  usual  wild 
grass.  If  we  consider  that  spring  and  summer  here 
begin  at  the  same  time,  and  not  until  the  month  of 
June,  and  that  they  hardly  last  three  months,  namely 
till  the  end  of  August,  because,  in  the  region  of  Yellow- 
stone Park,  heavy  snowfalls  and  cold  weather  set  in, 
very  often,  at  the  beginning  of  September;  The  phe- 
nomenon is  wonderful;  so  much  more,  because  nature 
as  if  by  witchcraft;  here  produces  more  in  some  wseks 
in  the  lower  valleys,  she  is  able  to  accomplish  in  many 
months. 

Beyond  the  hotel  of  Norris  Geyser,  where,  after 
having  launched,  we  continued,  at  1^  o'clock,  our  trip 
in  the  stage,  the  Hot  Springs  with  the  volcanic  Geysers 


MATTER    AND    FORCE.  12^ 

make  their  first  appearance. 

Indeed,  America  possesses,  in  her  Canadian  Jakes, 
true  extensive  oceans  of  fresh  water,  moreover  she  has, 
perhaps,  as  many  and  as  charming  inland  lakes  as 
Europe.  Even  the  Yellowstone  park  is,  so  far,  a  real 
Switzerland.  Dozens  of  surfaces  of  magnificent  lakes 
.slumber  upon  the  plateaus  or  concealed  between  the 
Rocky  Mountains;  but  the  most  beautiful  is  the  Yellow- 
stone lake  which  you  find  nearly  in  the  midst  of  the 
Park,  if  advancing  the  river  of  the  same  name.  Ex- 
cepting lake  Titicaca  in  South  America,  it  is  the  high- 
est of  all  large  lakes  on  earth,  almost  8,000  feet  above 
the  level  of  the  sea.  The  immense  surface  of  water  ex- 
tends for  miles  in  every  quarter.  Surrounded  by  the 
highest  peaks  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  overtopped 
by  the  three  snow-covered  Tetons,  it  can  be  numbered 
amongst  the  most  beautiful  works  of  nature.  The 
neighboring  woods  are  full  of  stags,  boars,  elks,  chamois, 
and  bears.  Viewed  from  afar,  it  resembles  a  hand  with 
the  fingers  outstretched  to  the  South.  The  water  of  the 
lake  which  is  over  300  feet  deep  is  thoroughly  impregna- 
ted with  sulphur.  Along  its  banks,  arise  innumerable 
hot  springs  which,  whistling  and  puffing,  protrude  the 
steam  which  inwardly  in  the  earth  is  produced,  like  from 
the  valves  of  a  locomotive.  They  are  the  safety-valves 
of  the  immense  boiler  full  of  water  and  fire  in  Vulcan's 
forge.  Even  from  the  icy  water  of  the  lake,  20  feet  distant 
from  the  bank,  shoot  up  boiling  hot  springs  from  small 
side  craters.  In  some  spaces  of  the  banks,  the  soil  is 
covered  with  small  pieces  of  obsidian,  chalcedony,  and 
rock-crystal,  in  others  with  parts  of  slate,  which  often 
were  believed  to  be  the  work  of  humnn  primitive  art. 
Cups,  points  of  lances,  buttons,  plates,  etc.,  are  here 
scattered.  Still  they  are  not  the  product  of  the  hand- 


124  MATT  Ell    AND    FORCE, 


of  Indians,  but  of  the  united  action  of  the  two  most 
powerful  elements,  fire  and  water,  the  former  forming 
their  rough  rudiments,  the  latter  polishing  them. 

At  the  western  part  of  the  great  Yellowstone  Lake 
the  principal  branch  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  here 
only  a  few  miles  wide,  is  situated,  which  also  is  the 
watershed  between  the  two  oceans  that  confine  Amer- 
ica. 

The  Shoshone  lake,  the  second  in  size,  is  situated  be- 
yond that  chain,  about  10  miles  distant  from  the  banks 
of  the  Yellowstone  Lake;  its  effluence  is  the  Snake  river. 

In  the  environs  of  this  lake  are  the  grandest  and 
most  re.narkable  Geysers  of  the  world,  compared  Avith 
which  those  of  Iceland  and  New  Zealand  are  small, 
namely;*  The  old  Faithful  Geyser,  150  ft.  high.  The 
Bee  Hive  Geyser,  200  ft.  high.  It  spouts  once  in  3  or 
4  days.  Its  ejections  last  15  minutes,  and  are  preceed- 
ed  by  repeated  detonations  like  claps  of  thunder,  finish- 
ed by  a  tumult  like  a  cannonading  on  the  battle  field. 
During  these  phenomena  the  earth  is  trembling,  and  a 
crash  of  sound  is  heard.  The  clouds  of  steam  rise  500 
feet  high.  The  body  of  water  is  25  feet  in  diameter; 
the  height  of  spouting,  90  feet.  From  the  apex  of  the 
column,  five  jets  of  vapor  shoot  up,  250  feet  high,  and 
illuminated  by  all  colors  of  the  rainbow.  This  spectacle 
lasts  twenty-five  minutes.  Little  jets  of  vapor  play  around 
the  Geyser.  The  Giantess,  or  Castle  Geyser,  is  situated 
among  ruins  which  look  like  an  old  castle,  its  eruptions 
are  often  20,  30,  and  50  feet  high;  they  last  for  several 
hours.  This  Geyser  is  now  in  decadence. 

The  Grand  Geyser:  100  feet  high;  pouts  at  very  irregu- 
lar intervals;  its  out-pourings  last  15  to  20  minutes. 

*  The  description  of  the  different  Geysers,  here  inserted,  is  taken  from 
the  illustrated  work;  "  Our  native  land.  "  New  York,  Appleton. 


MATTER    AND    FORCE.  125 

The  Fantail  Geyser  has  five  orifices;  it  mounts,  some- 
times, 100  feet  high  and  forms,  in  descending,  a  flutter- 
ing feather-fan. 

The  Grotto  Geyser,  amidst  several  grottoes,  is  150  feet 
high  and  displays,  3  to  4  times  a  day;  only  200  yards 
distant  from  the  Grand  Geyser. 

The  Giant  Geyser,  the  mos ;  gigantic  in  the  world,  is,  in 
itself  worth  to  tourists  to  make  an  excursion  to  the 
United  States,  in  order  to  see  it.  Its  basin  is  formed  by 
three  craters  which  look  like  the  stumps  of  a  great, 
broken  tree.  The  phenomenon  of  its  eruption  begins 
by  a  tumult  of  the  water  down  in  the  depths  of  the  basin. 
The  nearest  Geyser  begins  to  operate;  its  flood  is  hurled 
30  feet  high;  after  a  few  moments,  the  next  is  spouting; 
then  follows  thunder  and  groans  of  the  earth,  its  water 
is  boiling,  expanding  10  feet  in  diameter,  and  is  several 
times  hurled  up;  now,  all  gets  quiet;  but  at  once,  the 
water  shoots  up  200  feet  high,  and  above  its  apex,  the 
steam  is  borne  away  1,000  feet  high.  Its  tumult  is  like 
the  roar  of  artillery,  its  motion  like  the  sweep  of  a  tor- 
nado. This  phenomenon  lasts  1 J  hours.  Rocks  thrown 
into  the  flood  are  hurled  into  the  air. 

The  operation  of  the  Geysers  is  slowly  declining; 
one  hundred  years  ago  it  was  more  powerful  than  at 
the  present  day. 

I  return  to  the  report  of  the  diary  of  my  friend,  and 
first  will  finish  the  picture  of  the  Giant  Geyser  with  its 
words: 

The  opening  of  the  crater  of  the  Geyser  is  bottomless, 
and  without  water,  but  its  noise  and  bustle  under  the 
crater  can  be  heard  in  a  great  distance.  The  boiling 
and  hissing  water  suddenly  rises,  shooting  large  masses 
of  vapor,  and  is  hurled  up  as  by  the  explosion  of  an 
infernal  machine.  If  the  first  clouds  of  steam  have 


126  MATTER    AND    FORCE. 

disappeared,  the  water,  in  the  wide  pipe,  mounts  up 
and  down,  like  heated  quicksilver.  Its  surface  is  un- 
quiet, boiling  and  covered  with  bubbles.  Small  jets 
surmount  its  surface  and  almost  rea.h  the  mouth  of  the 
opening.  Suddenly,  the  whole  column  of  water  is 
rising,  and  like  fiery  tongs  divided  in  two.  Both  parts 
are  lifted  with  incredible  velocity,  and  shot  up  as  if  from 
a  cannon;  a  fuming  jet  of  water  more  than  twenty  feet  in 
diameter  is  elevated,  with  terrible  thunder,  sixty  feet 
high,  and  five  or  six  thinner  jets  shoot  through  this 
grand  column,  one  out  of  the  other,  as  high  as  a  steeple, 
the  uppermost  jet  seemingly  a  half  a  foot  thick.  The 
beauty  of  the  spectacle  is  incomparable.  Rainbows 
play  and  chase  up  and  down  in  the  clouds  of  fine, 
drizzling  rain,  appearing  sometimes  at  the  foot  of  the 
column  of  water,  sometimes  at  their  apex.  And  like 
the  image  of  a  divinity,  the  grand  radiant  fountain  is 
enveloped  in  a  frame  of  clear,  round,  small  steam-clouds, 
the  edges  of  which  are  illuminated  like  the  halo  of  a 
saint. 

After  this  graphic  description  of  the  Giant  Geyser, 
the  diary  thus  continues  its  narrative: 

The  most  wonderful  region  is  the  valley  of  upper 
Madison  river,  which  they  justly  called  the  firehole 
river.  The  valley,  which  is  many  miles  long  and  two 
and  three  miles  wide,  contains  hundreds  of  geysers,  hot 
springs  and  fountains,  which  thrust  out  their  jets  to 
250  feet  of  hight.  The  atmosphere  is  impregnated 
with  hot  steam  and  sulphurous  odors,  which  issue  from 
the  gaps  in  the  earth.  The  soil  on  some  places  is  cov- 
ered with  white  sinter,  on  others  it  consists  of  a  hot, 
slimy  crust,  of  bad  smell,  the  depth  of  which  is  un- 
fathomable! Bubbles  stand  on  their  surface,  and  jets 
of  steam  shoot  up  from  hundred  openings.  The  ground 


MATTER    AND    FORCE.  127 

gives  way  under  the  foot  of  the  traveler,  and  sometimes 
it  seemed  to  sink  down  in  the  abyss.  The  fountains 
have  the  same  diabolic  appearance  as  the  witches' 
caldron  in  Macbeth;  they  don't  need  there  the  presence 
of  Hecate  and  of  her  wild  band  to  realize  that  creation 
of  poetic  inspiration.  All  openings  are  boiling,  puffing, 
throwing  up  their  fluid  contents,  as  driven  by  a  dia- 
bolic power,  hundreds  of  feet,  and  scattering  them  on 
the  surrounding  grounds.  Some  appear  like  immeme 
boilers,  of  unfathomable  depth.  Stones  and  pieces  of 
rock  thrown  into  those  devils'  throats  only  increase  the 
excitement  of  the  elements.  Boughs  are  in  the  short- 
est time,  covered  by  layers  ol  leaden  slime.  The  color 
of  the  water  in  different  Geysers  is  different,  but  always 
of  a  glaring  feature:  red,  like  brimstone,  milk-white, 
agate  and  cryst aline:  even  the  most  diverse  shades  of 
green  occur,  and  on  the  walls  of  the  caldron  of  some 
apertures  small  valves  are  seen  from  which  the  water 
rushes,  while  the  walls  themselves,  as  far  down  you 
can  see,  are  covered  with  snow-white  crystals. 

After  a  passage  of  5-J-  hours,  we  arrived  at  the  hotel 
of  the  Upper  Geyser,  where  we  had,  immediately,  the 
chance  to  see  the  spectacle  of  the  eruption  of  the  Old 
Faithful  Geyser.1  It  is  the  peculiarity  of  this  Geyser  to 
be  precisely,  active  every  hour  and  throw  out,  for  five 
minutes,  its  boiling  masses  of  water  200  feet  in  height; 
but  after  having  achieved  this  feat,  he  is  again  the 
most  quiet  fellow. 

The  next  day,  (the  1 8th  of  July,)  was  devoted  to  the 
inspection  o^  the  nearly  200  Geysers,  distant  lour  miles 
from  the  hotel  "Upper  Geyser  Basin,"  of  which  I  espec- 
ially mark  the  sawmill  which  incessantly  puffs  and 
snorts  and  makes  a  noise  like  a  sawmill — the  "Grotto,'' 


MATTEK    AND    FORCE. 


the  "Punch  Bowl,"  the  "White  Pyramid,"  the  "Comet/" 
,  the  "Splendid,"  the  "Daisy,"  the  "Catfish,"  the  "Young 
Faithful,"  the  "Beehive,"  the  "Castle,"  and  the  "Laun- 
dry," Geysers. 

In  the  night,  we  enjoyed  the  spectacle  to  see  the  Giant 
Geyser  in  action,  which,  as  a  rule,  is  only  once  exhibi- 
ted in  four  or  five  ve^rs,  always  unawares  happens  and 
presents  a  view  which  no  pen  can  delineate. 

The  19th  of  July  was  selected  to  proceed  to  the  lower 
Geyser  Hotel  and  to  the  Yellowstone  Falls.  After  a  ride 
of  eight  hours  through  the  most  romantic  ravines,  val- 
leys, plains  and  Wildernesses  where  we  also  saw  wolves 
and  bears,  but  who,  probably,  disliked  our  tough  flesh, 
we  arrived  about  three  o'clock  P.  M.,  at  the  hotel  of 
Yellowstone  Falls  where  we  stopped,  took  supper  and 
and  put  up  our  tents  for  the  night.  Having  arrived  at 
this  hotel  we  immediately  mounted  our  riding  horses, 
called  mustangs,  like  Indians,  and  rode  up  to  the  top  of 
the  "canons"  as  they  call  these  ravines,  in  order  to 
view  the  wonderful  great  Yellowstone  Fall  and  to  ad- 
mire the  rocky  mountains  with  their  stones  and  awful 
depths.  The  great  cataract,  diversely  colored,  is  pre- 
cipitated from  a  height  of  300  feet  into  the  straightened 
channel,  an  aspect  which  exerts  an  overcoming  power 
and  in  my  mind  made  an  impression  by  far  greater  than 
the  world-renowned  Niagara  Falls,  because  these  reach 
hardly  the  fourth  part  of  the  height  of  the  former  one. 

The  canons  of  the  Yellowstone  Falls  surpass  those 
of  Yosemite  valley,  both  by  their  grandeur  and  the 
splendor  of  colors. 

The  20th  of  July  was  set  down  for  the  continuation 
of  our  journey;  but  as  the  horses  of  our  sage  which 
during  the  night  were  pasturing,  had  disappeared  and 
probably  mingled  with  Indian  mustangs,  it  must  be  de- 


MATTER    AND    FORCE.  129 


f erred  to  next  day;  we  employed  the  day  examining 
the  canons  and  waterfalls.  We  also  got  sight  of  several 
flocks  uf  buffaloes. 

After  the  21st,  of  July,  another  stage  with  horses 
arrived,  our  four  horses  had  run  away  and  were  not 
caught  for  three  weeks,  as  far  away  as  200  miles  from 
the  Yellowstone  Falls;  we  continued  our  trip  and  passed 
through  a  very  romantic  mountainous  region.  The 
movements  of  the  wagon  and  horses  were  sometimes 
quite  dangerous.  The  vegetation  of  this  region  is  down- 
right stupifying;  ths  wild  grass  which  is  the  feed  of  the 
buffaloes,  was  at  some  places,  from  12  to  15  feet  high. 
We  had  also  the  pleasure  to  admire  a  nice  pair  of 
beavers  that  were  constructing  their  artificial  building 
at  the  bank  of  the  Beaver  lake,  near  the  road.  After 
a  trip  of  5  hours  we  arrived  at  the  lower  Geyser  hotel. 
The  22d  of  July,  we  started  for  the  Loris  Geyser,  and, 
on  the  road,  had  occasion  to  admire  yet  many  Geysers. 
In  the  evening,  at  6  o'clock,  we  alighted  at  the  hotel 
of  Mammoth  Hot  Springs,  took  a  hot  bath  of  20  degrees 
and  had  an  excellent  sapper. 

The  23d  of  July  we  made,  accompanied  by  three 
ladies  and  three  gentlemen,  an  ascension  on  horsebaek, 
seventy  miles  far,  to  the  neighboring  Geysers,  called  Saw- 
mill Geysers. 

The  24th  of  July,  in  the  morning,  we  passed  from 
he  Mamoth   Hot   Springs,    on  the   stage,  through    the 
dcturesque  valley  and   arrived    after    2   hours   at   the 
ailroad  station  of  Cinnabar,    where  we   continued  our 
ute  on  the  railroad  to  Livingstone. 
So  we  had  been  in  the  magnificent  Yellowstone  Park 
from  the  16th  to  the  24th  of  July  and  did   not    believe 
it  to  be  possible  that  we  had  spent  a  full   week    in   this 


130  MATTER    AND    FORCE. 


fairy  land;  we  thought  that  only  one  or  two  days  had 
passed  away. 

By  the  short  sketch  of  this  journey,  it  will  be  seen 
what  incredible  wonders  of  Nature  in  this  comparatively 
small  territory  are  diffused,  the  Park  containing  only 
3,575  square  miles:  there  are  the  highest  mountains, 
covered  with  everlasting  snow,  splendid  green  valleys, 
watered  by  crystal  rivulets,  grand  lakes  and  natural 
jets  of  water,  hot  springs  and  mineral  baths,  woods  and 
ravines,  as  they  in  no  other  part  of  earth  can  be  viewed. 
Only  man,  as  far  was  missing  to  enjoy  the  rich  gifts 
which  Nature  spread  in  this  part  of  the  Rocky  Mount- 
ains; they  are  not  yet  sufficiently  known:  but  I  believe 
that  railroads  and  hotels  soon  will  tend  to  render  this 
Park  the  most  famous  place  of  pilgrimage  of  mankind. 

In  conclusion,  I  must  add  the  remark  that,  in  those 
regions,  the  air  is  so  rare  that  even  the  greatest  eaters 
can  hardly  consume  so  much  food  as,  in  common  life, 
a  little  child  three  or  four  years  old,  for  men  live  up 
there  more  on  air;  great  quantities  of  food  are  quite  de- 
barred by  nature,  even  if  there  were  a  will  to  eat  them. 


TWO    SCENES  FROM  LORD    BYRON'S    MAN- 
FRED. 


[REMARK  OF  THE  AUTHOR.-Here  follow  two  of  the  many  beautiful  de- 
scriptions of  nature  which  are  given  by  Lord  Byron  in  his  works.  They 
form  two  scenes  of  sublimity,  such  as  the  ingenious  Byron  alone  could 
describe.] 

ACT  III,    SCENE  II. 
[MANFRED    AND  HERMAN.] 

HER.     My  Lord,  you  bade  me  wait  on  you  at    sunset. 

He  sinks  behind  the  mountains. 

MAN.  Does  he  so? 

I  will  look  on  him. 

(He  advances  to  the  window  of  the  hall. 

Glorious  orb!  the  idol 
Of  early  nature,  and  the    vigorous  race 
Of  mi  diseased  mankind.         *         *         * 
Most  glorious  orb!  that  wert  a  worship,  ere 
The  mystery  of  thy  making  was  reveal'd! 
Thou  curliest  minister  of  the  Almighty, 
Which  gladden'd    on  their  mountain    tops,   the   hearts 
Of  the  Chaldean  shepherds,  till  they  pour'd 
Themselves  in  orisons!     Thou  material  God! 
And  representative  of  the  Unknown, 
AVho  chose  thee  for  his  shadow!     Thou  chief  star! 


132  MATTER    AND    FORCE. 

Center  of  many  stars!     Which  mak'st  our  earth 
Endurable,  and  temperest  the  hues 
And  hearts  of  all  who  walk  within  thy  rays! 
Sire  of  the  seasons!     Monarch  of  the  climes, 
And  those  who  dwell  in  them!     For  near  or  far, 
Our  inborn  spirits  have  a  tint  of  thee, 
Even  as  our  outward  aspects.     Thou  doest  rise, 
And  shine,  and  set  in  glory.     Fare  thee  well. 
I  ne'er  shall  see  thee  more.     As  my  first  glance 
Of  love  and  wonder  was  for  thee,  then    take 
My  latest  look.     Thou  wilt  not  beam  on  one 
To  whom  the  gifts  of  life  and  warmth  have  been 
Of  a  more  fatal  nature.     He  is  gone:     I  follow. 

[exit 

SCENE    IV. 

[Interior  of    the  Tower.] 

MANFRED  ALONE. 

The  stars  are  forth!     The  moon  above   the  tops 
Of  the  snow-shining  mountains. — Beautiful ! 
To  linger  yet  with  Nature,  for  the  night 
Hath  been  to  me  a  more  familiar  face 
Than  that  of  man.     And  in  her  starry  shade 
Of  dim  and  solitary  loveliness, 
I  learn'd  the  language  of  another  world. 
I  do  remember  me,  that  in  my  youth, 
When  I  was  wandering,  upon  such  a  night, 
I  stood  within  the  Colisseum's  wall, 
Midst  the  chief  relics  of  almighty  Kome. 
The  trees  which  grew  along  the  broken  arches 
Waved  dark  in  the  blue  midnight,  and  the  stars 
Shone  through  the  rents  of  ruin.     From  afar 
The  watchdog  bay'd  beyond  the  Tiber,  and 
More  near  from  out  the  Csesar's  palace  came 


MATTKR    AND    FORCE.  133 

The  owl's  long  cry,  and,  interruptedly, 

Of  distant  sentinels  the  fitful  song 

Began  and  died  upon  the  gentle  wind. 

Some  cypresses  beyond  the  time-worn  breach 

Appear'd  to  skirt  the  horizon,  yet  they  stood 

Within  a  bowshot — where  the  Csesar's  dwelt, 

And  dwell  the  tuneless  birds  of  night,  amidst 

A  grove  which  springs  through  levell'd  battlements, 

And  twines  its  roots  with  the  imperial  hearths. 

Ivy  usurps  the  laurel's  place  of  growth: — 

But  the  gladiators'  bloody  circus  stands, 

A  noble  wreck  in  ruinous  perfection, 

While  Caesar's  chambers,  and  the  Augustan 

Grovel  on  earth  in  indistinct  decay.— 

And  thou  didst  shine,  thou  rolling  moon  upon 

All  this,  and  cast  a  wide  and  tender  light, 

Which  soften'd  down  the  hoar  austerity 

Of  rugged  desolation,  and  fill'd  up, 

As  it  were  anew,  the  gaps  of  centuries; 

Leaving  that  beautiful- which  still  was  so, 

And  making  that  which  was  not,  till  the  place 

Became  religion,  and   the  heart  ran  o'er 

With  silent  worship  of  the  great  of  old— 

The  dead,  but  sceptred  sovereigns,  who  still  rule 

Our  spirits  from  their  urns-It  was  such  a  night. 


THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 


SECTION  THZRD. 

POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL, 


FESTIVAL     ORATION,     DELIVERED      THE 
FOURTH  OF  JULY  1867  IN  SAUK  CITY, 

WISCONSIN. 

FELLOW-CITIZENS: — What  signify  the  shouts  of  joy 
which  res  mud  to-day,  the  ringing  of  the  bells,  the  songs 
and  tli3  merry  tones  of  music?  For  what  purpose  are 
our  streets  decorated  with  green  branches?  Why  did  you 
in  such  a  great  number,  meet  here,  from  far  and  near? 

OCCASION  OF  THE  FESTIVAL. 

To-day  is  the  grandest  festival  which  we  celebrate, 
tire  festival  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  of  the 
United  States.  Every  one  should  recollect  to  day  that 
grand  event,  every  one  rejoice;  the  love  of  liberty  ought 
to  be  fostered  in  all  hearts,  also  in  tho.se  of  the  youth: 
and  I  rejoice  to  see  the  children  of  our  public  schools 
here  assembled. 

My  friends!  What  a  festival!  It  is  celebrated  every- 
where, from  the  lakes  which  in  the  North  border  our 
country,  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  from  the  Atlantic  to 
the  Pacific  Ocean,  in  the  whole  Union! 

But,  while  at  this  occasion  also  heaves  my  breast  joy- 
fully, I  am  nearly  disheartened,  when  I  look  over  the 
numerous,  most  respectable  assembly,  and  recollect  mv 
feeble  faculties,  so  much  the  more  because  only  a  short 
time  was  given  me  for  preparation.  If,  therefore,  the 


136  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  QUESTIONS. 


success  does  not  correspond  to  your  expectation,  excuse 
the  effort,  and  grant  me  your  kind  indulgence. 

ORIGIN  OF  THE  FESTIVAL. 

First,  I  will  explain  the  historical  origin  of  our  fe  ti- 
val.  About  one  hundred  years  ago,  the  English  Gov- 
ernment resol  /ed  to  levy  taxes  upon  its  American  Col- 
onies. Now,  they  did  not  object  to  bear  their 
share  of  the  public  charges,  but  they  wanted  to 
tax  themselves,  asserting  that  the  British  Govern- 
ment had  no  right  to  impose  taxes  upon  them.  For,  ac- 
cording to  the  English  Constitution,  the  people  were 
not  permitted  to  be  taxed  but  b}-  their  representatives, 
(the  Parliament.)  Still,  the  Colonies  had  no  representa- 
tives in  the  Parliament,  consequently  the  Parliament 
had  no  right  to  tax  them.  At  first  they  should  pay  a 
tax  lor  sugar  and  stamped  paper.  All  public  docu- 
ments,notes,  receipts,  bonds,  newspapers,  etc.,  etc.,  should 
be  stamped,  and  a  certain  tax  be  paid  for  them  to  the 
British  Government.  The  colonies  refused  to  do  it. 
The  stamped  papers  were  burnt,  hidden,  destroyed.  The 
Government  was  obliged  to  repeal  the  stamp  Act.  After 
some  years,  it  made  another  attempt,  resolving  that 
the  Colonies  should  pay  a  tax  for  paper,  glass,  colors, 
and  tea.  They  should  also  support  British  soldiers;  and 
two  regiments  were  immediately  ordered  to  Boston. 
The  indignation  the  colonies  felt  on  account  of  these 
violent  actions  was  general.  In  Boston,  several  mal- 
contents, disguised  as  Indians,  thrsw  340  chests  of  tea, 
which  belonged  to  the  East  India  Company,  into  the 
ocean.  The  inhabitants  of  New  York  and  Pennsylva- 
nia returned  the  tea  to  England.  The  English  Gov- 
ernment closed  the  port  of  Boston,  declared  the  inhab- 
itants rebels,  and  dispatched  still  more  troops.  At 
Lexington  the  first  blood  was  spilled,  (1775),  while  the 


POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    QUESTIONS.  137 


soldiers  attacked  the  colonists  and  killed  several.  After 
this  a  general  insurrection  followed:  the  colonies  re- 
solved to  resist,  and  called  their  men  to  arms: 

Congress  assembled  in  Philadelphia  (1776),  resolving: 
"We  the  representatives  of  the  States,  proclaim  and  de- 
clare tlmt  these  united  colonies  shall  be,  henceforth,  free 
and  independent  States;  and  that  every  political  con- 
nection between  them  and  the  British  Crown  shall  be 
dissolved/'  The  declaration  was  almost  everywhere 
joyfully  received.  Solemn  processions  were  arranged 
the  bells  were  rung,  cannon-shots  resounded  and  patri- 
otic orations  were  delivered.  The  colonies  fought  dur- 
ing eight  years  against  the  mother-country  for  freedom 
and  independence.  They  avoided  no  sacrifice  and  pri- 
vations. Many  fought  barefooted,  in  snow-fields,  in  the 
midst  of  winter.  France  succored  the  brave,  and  finally, 
proud,  humbled  England  signed  the  peace  in  Paris, 
and  acknowledged  the  independence  of  the  colonies, 
(1783).  Hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  had  been 
spent  with  war  expenses,  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
Americans  had  lost  their  lives;  even  more  had  grown 
miserable  by  wounds  and  poverty:  but  INDEPENDECNE 
triumphed! 

FREEDOM  OF  4  MILLIONS  OF  MEN. 

In  fact,  independence  from  a  foreign  power  was  ac- 
complished; still  within  the  country  it  was  not  yet  com- 
plete. In  the  preamble  of  the  Declaration  it  is  said: 

uWe  hold  these  truths  to  be  self  evident- — That  all 
men  are  created  equal;  that  they  are  endowed  by  their 
Creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights;  that  among  these 
are  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness."  In  the 

uthern  States  slavery  still  dominated.  It  was  in 
vain  that  the  Northern  States  demanded  its  abolishment; 
the  slave  holders  opposed;  nay  even  demanded  the  re- 


are 

So- 


138  POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    QUESTIONS. 


turn  of  their  fugitive  slaves.  This  was  not  enough. 
Slavery  ought  also  to  be  introduced  into  all  territories, 
and  when  the  patriotic  party— at  their  head  Abraham 
Lincoln,  the  President — opposed,  ten  slave-holding 
States  raised  the  flag  of  insurrection,  and  burned  Fort 
Sumpter.  But  the  phoenix  of  Liberty  rose  from 
the  ashes  of  the  fort.  True  it  took  four  years  of  a 
bloody  combat,  and  cost  many  victims.  I,  also,  laid 
my  sacrifice  upon  the  altar  of  my  new  country;  I  let 
five  of  my  sons  enlist  in  the  combat;  one  of  them  re- 
turned a  crippled  man,  with  one  leg,  another  lost  his 
life  by  cruel  starvation  in  the  prisons  of  North  Caro- 
lina. 

But  why  do  I  speak  of  my  own  humble  self, 
as,  perhaps,  few  are  among  you  whose  families 
did  not  suffer  similar  misfortunes.  How  many 
wives,  how  many  mothers,  deplore  the  loss  of  a  dear 
husband,  of  a  beloved  son!  Even  the  chief  of  our 
government,  president  Lincoln,  whose  memory  will 
never  be  forgotten ,  fell  a  martyr  to  liberty.  Billions  of 
dollars  were  devoured  by  war;  hundreds  of  thousands 
lost  their  lives,  and  many  more  their  health.  But  the 
fetters  of  slavery  were,  finally,  broken  and  now  con- 
sider this  contrast:  before  this,  the  wretched  slaves  often 
suffered  hunger,  want  and  exhaustion;  they  were  driven 
with  the  lash,  to  work,  were  branded,  pursued  'with 
blood-hounds,  loaded  with  fetters,  and  often,  with 
wanton  cruelty,  tortured  and  killed.  No  kind  judge 
existed  for  them.  Husbands  and  wives  were  separated , 
daughters  abused  by  their  masters,  their  children  sold 
at  the  slave-auctions.  The  schools  were  locked  up  to 
them;  even  the  blessings  of  religion — the  last  consola- 
tion left  to  the  unfortunate — withheld  from  them;  they 


POLITICAL     AND    SOCIAL    QUESTIONS.  1-9 

were  not  permitted  to  become  acquainted  with  the  gos- 
pel, because  it  declares  all  men  to  be  brothers.  On  the 
contrary,  these  miserables  have  now  their  own  tire- 
places,  are  free  to  choose  their  own  masters,  to  secure 
their  own  homesteads;  the  rights  of  their  marriages  and 
families  are  as  sacred  as  those  of  the  white  population; 
.schools  are  thrown  open  for  the  education  of  their  chil- 
dren; they  enjoy  the  right  of  free  speech,  and  have  the 
right  of  suffrage  in  the  public  affairs.  Fellow-citizen*! 
Some  millions  of  these  ireedmen,  to-day,  celebrate  with 
us,  their  independence:  what  a  day  of  joy,  what  a 
jubilee  is  it  to  them! 

GENERAL  PROSPERITY. 

Prosperity  has  grown  also  for  us  from  that  war.  The 
inveterated,  cancerous  sore  which  was  spreading  more 
and  more  in  the  limbs  of  the  Union  was  finally  eradi- 
cated; the  stain  uf  our  Constitution,  namely,  the  legality 
•of  slavery,  is  blotted  out.  Peace  is  re-established,  pros- 
peri  y  returns,  commerce  gains  a  new  soaring,  thou- 
sands of  new  emigrants  rush  to  our  States  and  replace 
the  citizens  who  in  the  war  were  lost,  the  springs  of 
industry  flow  again,  new  ones  are  opened,  and  the 
Union  regained,  in  the  foreign  countries,  glory  and 
respect. 

WHAT  13  TO  BE  DONE  YET? 

"Thus,  nothing  is  left  to  be  done  more  by  us,  citizen^ 
of  a  freeState.?"  No,  fellow-citizens,  it  is  not  all  accom- 
plished, there  is  no  stopping  in  the  life  of  nations;  we 
ought  to  advance  with  the  age.  Ours  is  a  state  of 
culture  in  which  the  mental  and  material  forces  should 
be  more  and  more  developed,  the  citizens  should  rise  to 
higher  degrees  of  civilization;  the  ideas  of  Right  and 
Morality  should  be  realized  more  and  more  perfectly; 
existing  defects  ought  to  be  progressively  abolished. 


140  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL 

Permit  me,  only  for  the  sake  of  example,  to    mention 
here  some  of  the  latter  ones. 

True,  the  slaves  of  the  Southern  States  became  free, 
but  how  many  of  them  are  still  starving  in  misery,  while 
their  old  oppressors  revel  in  abundance,  and  remained 
the  owners  oi  all  estates,  the  legal  claims  of  which  they 
—the  rebels — had  lost.  The  colored  men  will  never 
be  happy  without  landed  property,  and  still,  as  ,ve 
heard  say  to-day,  God  gave  ALL  men  the  right  to  pur- 
sue happiness. 

MORE  JUSTICE  IS  WANTED. 

Are  the  laws  of  justice  always  strictly  administered? 
Are  murders  committed  by  public  justice  in  our 
country  unprecedented?  Jefferson  Davis  was  the  ring- 
leader, tbe  chief  of  the  rebels;  thousands  of  our  captives, 
with  his  knowledge  and  approbation,  were  deprived  of 
their  lives  in  Anderson ville,  in  Salisbury,  in  the  Libby 
Prison,  many  by  refined  cruelty;  he  was  very  likely  alsa 
privy  to  the  infamous  conspiracy  of  the  murderers  who 
shortened  violently  Lincoln's  life:  and  see,  after  this  ar- 
rant knave,  at  great  expenses,  had  been  captured,  and 
for  two  years,  lavishly  fed  and  regaled,  he  is  set  free 
and  a  Horace  Greely,  a  leader  of  the  radical  press,  even 
gives  bail  for  :he  monster. 

RELATION  BETWEEN  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR. 

The  increase  of  pauperism  is  another  defect  of  our 
States,  principally  in  the  populous  cities  of  the  East. 
We  cannot  gainsay  that  the  relation  between  capital  and 
labor  often  hurts  the  principles  of  humanity.  While 
gome  rich  capitalists  waste  life  in  idleness,  their  work- 
men, who  sweat  by  their  toilsome  labor,  suffer  from 
want  and  distress. 

MORE  RELIGIOUS  FREEDOM. 

The  general  Constitution,  and  the  particular  one  of 


POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    QUESTIONS.  141 

our  State,  warrant  religious  liberty;  still,  how  does  this 
warrant  harmonize  with  the  Sabbatarian  laws  of  all 
States,  and  in  particular  with  those  which  lately  were 
issued  in  Massachusetts,  New  York  and  Pennsylvania, 
by  which  the  workman  is  forbidden  to  enjoy  on  Suu- 
days,  public  amusement,  or  to  strengthen  his  weary 
limbs  by  a  refreshing  draught. 

But  be  this  enough  in  regard  to  the  shady  parts  of 
our  public  life!  In  conclusion,  allow  me  to  submit  to  your 
attention  some  suggestions  how  to  remedy  these  defects. 

REMEDIES  OF  THE  DEFECTS.     PROGRESS   OF   CUL  TURE.     FREE 
SPEECH. 

In  the  United  States,  the  people  are  the  sovereigns; 
we  make  our  own  laws,  and  are  governed  by  them. 
Most  excellent.  But  let  us  be  careful  that  this  sover- 
eign never  grows  blind  or  is  carried  away  by  passions; 
for,  only  in  case  that  this  does  not  happen,  the  old 
proverb  is  valid:  "Vox  populi  vox  Dei/'  (the  voice  of 
the  people  is  the  voice  of  God).  For  this  reason,  the 
people  should  not  remain  in  its  present  degree  of  cul- 
ture, nor  be  fossilized,  but  improve  and  enlarge  its 
knowledge,  generally,  and  especially  in  the  sphere  of 
public  life. 

Free  speech  and  the  public  press,  in  particular,  should 
subserve  for  this  purpose:  their  rights  should  be  pro- 
tected and  maintained. 

But  in  order  to  attain  this  aim,  nothing  is  more  nec- 
essary, than  some  reforms  in  our  public  schools,  and  as 
I  was  myself  occupied  as  a  teacher  most  part  of  my 
life,  I  may  be  well  entitled  to  give,  on  this  subject,  my 
vote.  | 

REFORMS  IN  THE  SCHOOLS. 

In  our  schools  many  useful  objects,  e.  g.,  reading, 
writing,  arithmetic  and  geography,  are  taught,  indeed: 


142  POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    QUESTIONS. 


but  frequently  religious  prejudices,  too,  are  inoculated 
in  youth;  especially,  their  intellect  is  captivated  by  a 
blind  faith  in  authority,  no  difference  if  they  are  habitu- 
ated to  follow  blindfold  the  authority  of  a  man  or  of  a 
book.  If  children,  trained  in  this  way,  are  grown  up, 
they  turn  often  puppets  in  politics,  who  can  easily  be 
led  by  their  supreme  magistrates,  may  they  are  called 
presidents,  emperors  or  kings,  and  who  sell  their  votes 
to  the  highest  bidders. 

In  our  schools,  the  principles  of  sound  morals,  the 
mutual  rights  and  duties  of  men  should  also  be  taught 
and  more  capable  pupils  be  acquainted  with  the  funda- 
mental parts  of  our  Constitution.  It  is  most  fair  that 
they  are  instructed  in  the  history  of  the  country;  still 
they  should  learn  also  the  history  of  other  free  people, 
•who,  as  in  Greece,  and  Rome,  and,  in  modern  times,  in 
England  and  France,  exerted  themselves  for  fieedom. 

OUR  RESOLUTIONS. 

Fellow-citizens!  May  this  festival  inspire  you  with 
love  for  liberty  and  independence!  Let  us  follow  the 
footsteps  of  the  lathers  of  the  republic.  Washington, 
Benjamin  Franklin,  Thomas'  Jefferson,  Patrick  Henry, 
Thomas  \Paine,  Lafayette,  and  other  men  of  the  revolu- 
tion, resembling  them,  ought  to  be  our  models.  Three 
millions  of  Americans  undertook  the  combat  against 
the  powerful  England,  and  won  the  victory.  Must 
such  examples  not  shame  the  reactionary  politicians, 
partisans,  arid  time-servers  of  our  age? 

Remember,  to-day',  the  combattants  who  perished  in 
the  last  war!  The  ladies  of  Louisville  lately  decorated 
their  graves  with  fresh  wreaths.  Let  us  raise  to  our 
dear  dead,  monuments  in  our  hearts,  resolving,  to 
lay,  like  them,  if  necessary,  every  sacrifice  on  the  altar 


POLITICAL     AND    SOCIAL    QUESTIONS.  143 

of  our  count rv. 

Let  us  take  care  of  the  best  education  of  our  children; 
not  only  the  hope  of  our  old  age,  but  the  future  of  our 
country  depends  upon  them;  according  as  we  educate  or 
spoil  them,  also  the  time  to  come  will  be  shaped  for 
glory  or  for  infamy,  for  happiness  or  ruin.  Lst  us  love 
our  children  and  families,  but  more  the  welfare  of  our 
State  than  our  families,  and  more  the  prosperity  of  the 
Union  than  the  happiness  of  the  single  States.  Let  'us 
be  more  than  Democrats,  more  than  Kepublicans,  more 
than  Union  men:  let  us  be  patriots,  sound  in  mind, 
strong  in  achievements.  Let  it  be  our  watchword: 
independence  in  politics,  social  questions  and  religion, 
forever! 

SOCIAL  AND  POLITICAL  WANTS. 

1.     SOCIAL  WANTS. 

The  word  '-socialism''  means  social  wants  in  its  broad- 
est sense,  a  more  thorough  and  harmonious  disposition 
in  all  social  relations  of  mankind;  but  in  the  usual 
sense  they  understand  by  it  the  theory  of  reforms  by 
which  property,  industry,  and  other  sources  of  livelihood 
are  to  be  reorganized,  in  the  State,  for  the  benefit  of  all 
its  members.  It  cannot  be  disputed  that,  especially  in 
the  European  States,  an  illimited  inequality  of  posses- 
sion of  the  citizens  takes  place.  While  the  lowest  classes 
suffer  from  bitter  want,  the  higher  ones  live  in  abund- 
ance and  revel  in  profusion.  Therefore,  so  many  rev- 
olutions shake,  there,  like  volcanoes,  the  tranquility  of 
those  countries;  revolutions  by  which  the  lowest  ele- 
ments of  civil  society  give,  like  accumulated  fuel  burn- 
ing in  flames,  forcible  and  devastating  vent.  The  revolu- 
tions in  1848  were  most  part,  of  the  social  kind.  The 
last  insurrection  of  workmen  in  Paris,  in  1871,  which 


144  POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    QUESTIONS. 

destroyed  sixty  thousand  proletarians,  and  the  fact  that 
since  the  conquest  of  the  city  300,000  inhabitants  who 
are  without  a  living  must  be  nourished  by  public  char- 
ity, point  distinctly  to  the  sore  spots  of  the  body  politic 
in  that  country. 

In  the  larger  cities  of  America,  too,  spreads  a  painful 
disproportion  in  the  possession  of  the  inhabitants;  e.g., 
in  the  city  of  New  York,  hundreds  of  thousands  are 
sometimes  almost  without  bread.  Such  evils  cannot  be 
excused  before  the  tribunal  of  natural  right  and  hu- 
manity. Horace  Greely,  himself  an  American,  said 
in  his  work  on  socialism:  " According  to  the  natural 
law,  a  man  in  the  State  of  New  York  has,  by  his  birth, 
a  perfect  right  to  stay  there,  and  to  demand  his  equal 
share  of  soil,  woods,  water,  and  natural  products  of  the 
land;  but  according  to  the  State  law,  only  he  who  can 
show  a  title-deed  has  a  claim  to  these  goods;  the  others 
have  not  even  the  right  to  stand  upon  a  foot  of  land, 
except  in  the  public  road."  Greely  continues:  "It  can- 
not be  proved  that  such  a  condition  of  ent  ire  destitution 
is  necessary  for  public  welfare;  thsrefore,  it  shall  be 
remedied."  He  proposes  as  means  of  help,  to  give 
work  to  the  destitute,  i.  e.  continued  occupation,  joint 
with  such  remuneration  that  his  physical,  mental  and 
moral  wants  be,  thereby,  relieved.  (Greely  does  not  see 
a  remedy  in  poor-houses  and  institutions  of  charity). 
Furthermore  he  advises  the  workmen  to  demand  higher, 
wages,  if  the  employer  be  able  to  grant  them,  and  to 
stop  their  work,  if  he  does  not;  besides  to  organize  as- 
sociations in  which  they  fabricate  themselves  the  arti- 
cles for  which  they  are  paid  by  their  masters.  Finally 
he  recommends  them  wise  economy  in  their  household , 
temperance  in  the  use  of  spirituous  fluids  etc. 

L.    Buchner    proposes    (in     his  book,  "Position  of 


POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    QUESTIONS.  145 

Man  in  Nature,"  third  part)  to  abrogate  the  right  of 
soil,  and  to  consider  it  as  joint  property  of  State.  Still, 
its  legal  owner  must  not  be  expelled  from  his  land,  but 
permitted  by  law,  to  get  it  redeemed  by  a  moderate  sum 
-of  purchase,  whereupon  it  ought  to  become  property  of 
the  State.  The  government  shall  Linitate  the  right  of 
heritage,  and  introduce  taxes  of  inheritance.  Yet  he 
thinks  that  it  never  will  be  possible  to  bring  about  a 
perfect  equalization. 

The  socialist  Owen  wrote  long  ago,  and  Herbert 
*Spsncer,  in  oar  age,  on  inequality  of  possession.  The 
later  one  let  the  cure  of  this  evil  depend  from  the' prog- 
ress in  civilization,  asserting:  "The  perfect  man  alone 
<can  realizeathe  perfect  State." (Social  Statics)." 

In  America,  the  Government  reduced  the  time  of 
labor  of  the  workmen  who  are  employed  in  its  service 
to  eight  hours  a  day.  Many  working  men  try  to  improve 
their  situation  by  entering  into  lodges. 

2.     POLITICAL  WANTS. 

We  hear  so  frequently  complaints  on  th  political  cor- 
ruption of  our  States  that  we  ca  mot  anticipate  the  future 
without  solicitude.  All  political  parties  agree  in  these 
complaints,  only  with  the  difference  that  they  impute 
the  origin  of  the  evil  to  each  other.  Even  the  authors 
of  general  histories  remark  in  their  works  that  the  con- 
el  tion  of  morals  and  justice  in  the  United  States  is  far 
from  being  as  innocent  and  blameless  as  it  was  in  the 
first  period  of  the  republic.  Therefore,  many  desire  a 
reform  of  the  head  and  the  members  of  the  government* 
They  desire  reforms  in  the  legislations  of  the  single  States, 
for  the  sake  of  their  inefficacy  and  the  high  expenditures 
they  cause  to  their  States,  and  for  the  useless  fabrication 
of  so  many  laws;  they  desire  reforms  in  the  administrat- 
ion of  public  justice,  for  the  misplacing  law-suits,  for 


146  POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    QUESTIONS'.- 

their  snails-pace  and  partiality  in  the  verdicts;  they  de- 
sire reforms  in  the  monopolies  which  are  granted  to  rail- 
road companies  by  giving  away  to  them  the  most  valu- 
able state-lands;  they  desire  reforms  against  election -in- 
trigues, against  the  incapacity  of  many  officers,  and 
against  the  venality  of  offices. 

Another  nuisance  of  our  Constitution  which  is  blamed 
by  many  is  the  privilege  which  it  gives  to  our  President 
to  appoint  an  army  of  officers.  Bv  dint  of  this  righty 
the  most  important  offices  are,  sometimes,  conferred  by 
personal  favor  and  party  regards.  The  party  of  prog- 
ress further  asserts  that  the  people  ought  to  have  the 
right  to  discharge  such  members  in  the  Congress  who  do 
not  satisfy  their  commissioners,  immediately,  before- 
their  term  of  office  expires. 

Man  has  the  full  right  to  form  his  religion,  and  to> 
confess  it  according  to  his  idea  of  the  universe,  and  the 
State  is  bound  to  respect  this  right.  It  shall  not  limit 
the  liberty  of  conscience  of  its  inhabitants  neither  bv 
stakes,  nor  by  dragonades,  nor  by  Sabbatarian  laws. 

The  exemption  of  church  property  from  taxation  is, 
another  crying  nuisance.  There  are  sixty  thousand 
ministers  in  the  United  States.  If  we  rate  their  average 
salary  at  $1,500  a  year,  the  whole  expense  for  them 
amounts  annually  to  $100,000,000.  Their  residences 
are  untaxed.  The  land  owned  by  the  churches  amounts 
to  millions  of  acres,  and  is  also  exempt  from  taxes.  In 
this  manner  the  millions  of  dollars  which  ought  to  be 
paid  by  the  churches,  are  devolved  on  the  rest  of 
the  tax-payers.  The  Secular  Union  petitioned 
in  the  State  of  New  York  to  abrogate  this  notorious 
injustice,  but  was  not  heeded.  California  is — as  far  as 
I  know — the  only  State  in  which  church  property  is 
liable  to  taxation. 


POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    QUESTIONS.  147 


Finally,  our  age  is  much  interested  in  the  question  of 
women's  rights.  We  cannot  gainsay  that,  in  civil 
society,  woman  is  denied  to  occupy  the  position  which 
her  merits  of  public  welfare  and  her  nature  deserve. 
The  full  discussion  of  this  subject  is  given  in  the  speech 
011  the  rights  of  women. 

THE  RIGHT  TO  THE   USE  OF   THE  EARTH. 

Extract  from  Herbert  Spencer,  ("Social  Statics,  ch.  .9") 

1 .  If  each  of  men  has  freedom    to    do    all   that    he 
wills,  provided  that  he  infringes  not  the  equal  freedom 
of  any  other,  then  each  of  them  is  free  to  use  the  earth 
for  his  wants,  provided  he  allows  all   others    the    same 
liberty.     And  conversely,  no  one  may   use  the  earth  in 
such  a  way  as  to  prevent  the  rest  from  similarly  using 
it. 

2.  Equity  does  not  permit  property  in   land;  or  if 
not  so,  they  who  are  not  land-owners,  can  exist  on  earth 
by  sufferance  only.     They  are  all  trespassers.     Save  by 
permission  of  the  lords  of  the  soil,  they  can  have  no  room 
for  the  soles  of  their  feet.     Nay,  should  the  others  think 
fit  to  deny  them  a  resting.place,  these  landless  men  might 
equitably  be  expelled  from  the  earth  altogether. 

o.  The  titles  of  most  of  the  land-owners  can  be 
traced  to  violence  and  fraud.  The  original  deeds  were 
written  with  the  sword  rather  than  with  the  pen.  But 
"time  constitutes  a  legitimate  claim.  That  which  has 
been  bought  and  sold  from  age  to  age  as  private  prop- 
erty, must  now  be  considered  as  irrevocably  belonging 
to  individuals."  How  long  does  it  take  for  what  was 
originally  a  wrong  to  grow  into  a  right?  Right  of 
mankind  at  large  is  yet  valid,  all  deeds,  customs  and 
1  aw,s  notwithstanding. 

4.     uBy   cultivation,  land   becomes    my    property — 


148  POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    QUESTK 


my  own."  You  turned  over,  only,  the  surface  of  the 
soil,  and  scattered  a  few  seeds  on  it.  By  what  magic 
have  these  acts  made  you  sole  owner  of  that  vast  mass 
of  matter,  having  for  its  base  the  surface  of  your  estate, 
and  for  its  apex  the  center  ol  the  globe? 

"I  first  occupied  and  improved  it."  The  world  is  God's 
bequest  to  men;  society  is  the  lawful  owner.  The  worth 
of  your  working  is  yours,  but  not  the  land  itself. 

5.  "Why,"  it  may  be  asked;  "should  not  man  agree 
to  a  fair  subdivision?     If  all  are  co-heirs,  why  may  no  t 
ihe  estate  be  equally  apportioned,  and    each   be    after- 
wards perfect  master  of  his  own  share?"     It  should  be 
difficult  to  fix  the  values  of  respective   tracts  of  land. 
It  is  variable    in    fertility,    in    the    advantage    of  cli- 
mate, etc. 

6.  There  are  people  who  hate  anything  in  the  shape 
of  exact  conclusions;  and  these  are    of  them,     But   it 
behooves  such  to  recollect,  that  ethical  truth  is  as  exact 
and  as  peremptory  as  physical  truth.     Either  men  have 
a  right  to  make  the  soil  private  property,  or  they  have 
not.     There  is  no  medium.     We   must  choose    one    of 
the  positions.     There  can  be  no  half-and-half  opinion. 

7.  After  all,  nobody  does  implicitly  believe  in  land- 
lordism.    We  daily  deny  it  by  our  legislation.     Is   a 
railway  or  public  road  to  be  made?     We  do  not  scruple 
to  seize  just  as  many  acres  of  private  property  as  may 
be  requisite;  allowing  the  holders  compensation  for  the 
capital  invested.     We  do  not  wait  for  consent. 

8.  Such  a   doctrine  is  consistent    with    the  highest 
state  of  civilization;  the  change  required  would    simply 
be  a  change  of  landlords.     Separate    ownerships   would 
merge  into  the  joint-stock  ownership  of  the  public      In- 
stead of  leasing  his  acres  from  an  isolated  proprietor,  the 
farmer  would  lease   them   from   the   nation.     Stewards 


POLITICAL     AND    SOCIAL    QUESTIONS.  141) 

would  be  public  officials  instead  of  private   ones. 

,9.  No  doubt  great  difficulties  must  attend  the  re- 
sumption, by  mankind  at  large,  of  their  rights  to  the 
«soil.  The  question  of  compensation  to  existing  propri- 
etors is  a  complicated  one-one  that  perhaps  cannot  be 
settled  in  a  strictly  equitable  manner.  Meanwhile,  in 
our  tender  regards  for  the  vested  interests  of  the  few,  let 
us  not  forget  that  the  rights  of  the  many  are  in  abeyance; 
let  us  remember  that  the  injustice  inflicted  on  the  mass 
of  mankind,  is  an  injustice  of  the  gravest  nature.  Men 
may  by-aud-by  learn  that  to  deprive  others  of  their 
rights  to  the  use  of  the  earth,  is  to  commit  a  crime  inferior 
only  in  wickedness  to  the  crime  of  taking  away  their 
lives  or  oersonal  liberties. 

THE  LAND-QUESTION. 

A  REPORT  OF  L.  BUCHXER. 

The  16th  of  September,  in  1888,  an  association  for 
land -reform,  in  Frankfort,  was  organized,  to  which 
many  gentlemen  from  all  parts  of  Germany,  also  from 
Holland  and  Switzerland  joined.  The  standpoint  of 
the  association  is,  in  general,  that  of  Henry  George, 
who,  by  his  renowned  book  on  "Progress  and  Poverty," 
revived  the  very  old  question.  The  purpose  of  the  as- 
sociation is  to  enlighten  the  public  mind  in  regard  to 
the  fundamental  cause  of  the  economical  distress  of 
many  people.  It  sees  it,  principally,  in  the  uneven  dis- 
tribution of  soil,  and  in  the  accumulation  of  enormous 
riches  which  private  persons  collect  by  interests  and 
ground  rents,  without  working  themselves.  Sec,  1  of 
the  statutes  details  how,  as  the  annual  savings  bear  new 
interests,  hereby  an  increasing  deficiency  originates  in 
the  use  of  national  and  international  goods,  which  the 
needy  masses  are  not  able  to  make  up,  because  they 


150  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL 

must  raise  the  continually  increasing  tributes  of  inter- 
ests and  rents  for  the  growing  property  of  their  credi- 
tors and  landlords,  who  employ  their  revenues  less  and 
less  for  the  purchase  of  consumable  objects.  The  oppor- 
tunity of  work  hereby  becomes  more  and  more  difficult; 
the  struggle  for  it  is  sharpened,  and  so  the  fact  of  in- 
creasing need  and  of  the  want  of  employment  can  be 
explained.  At  the  same  time,  the  capacity  to  generate 
more  wealth  and  the  possibility  of  affluence  is  more 
growing. 

In  order  to  emerge  from  this  abyss,  the  associa- 
tion demands  the  abolition  of  the  right  to  sell 
and  invest  land,  and  to  return  to  the  usage  of  the 
ancient  Germans  according  to  which  the  soil  of 
Germany  belonged  to  the  Ger:  nan  nation,  and 
only  this,  in  its  single  tribes,  possessed  the  right  to 
dispose  of  the  land.  It  was  in  the  course  of  the 
discussion  at  large  expounded  that  the  ancient 
German  right  was,  by  degrees,  supplanted  by  the 
Kornan  right,  which  gave  too  much  way  to  the  right 
of  private  property,  while  the  highest  principle  of  natu- 
ral right  must  be  that  the  soil  on  which  we  are  born 
and  have  to  live  must  be  the  common  property  of  all, 
as  W7ell  as  the  air  which  we  breathe.  If  it  were  possible 
to  occupy  the  air  like  land,  it  would  have  been  clone 
long  ago,  and  the  poor,  or  he  who  comes  too  late  would 
find  neither  a  place  where  to  put  his  head,  nor  where  he 
could  breathe,  except  if  he  were  willing  to  give  the 
faculties  which  Nature  has  conferred  upon  him  in  bond- 
age to  the  monopolist  of  soil  and  air. 

The  speaker  of  the  association  continued  to  say  that 
it  is,  in  his  opinion,  a  crying  injustice  that  the  increas- 
ing worth  the  soil  gains  in  or  close  to  thriving  cities,  or 
in  the  neighborhood  of  railroads  and  factories  becomes 


POLITICAL     AND    SOCIAL    QUESTIONS.  lol 

a  profit  solely  to  single  persons  who  own  it  by  mere 
accident,  while  this  worth  is  only  the  result  of  the  activ- 
ity and  industry  of  all  or  many,  and,  therefore,  ought  to 
be  of  profit  ^o  all  or  to  the  commonwealth.  This  point 
of  the  discussion  seemed  to  the  convention  to  1)3  so  im- 
portant and  evident  that  they  resolved  to  fix  their 
•entire  attention  on  it,  while  the  reform  of  land  posses- 
sion could  only  in  afar  distant  time  be  expected.  It 
cannot  be  thought  of  it  before  people,  generally,  are 
convinced  that  such  a  measure  is  just  and  necessary. 
To  the  contrary,  it  will  not  be  difficult  to  convince 
governments  and  legislative  bodies  of  the  injustice  of  the 
mentioned  enhancement  of  worth  in  private  hands,  and 
to  cause  a  corresponding  legislation. 

Louis  Buchner,  the  celebrated  author  of  the  work 
"Matter  and  Force,"  was  president  of  the  association.  It 
elected  a  secretary  and  constituted  a  periodical  to  be  the 
organ  of  its  further  transactions. 

A  SPEECH  ON  THE  RIGHTS  OF  WOMEN. 

(Delivered  before  the  Liberal  League  in  San  Jose,  1ST!).) 


THE  WIFE  IS  INFERIOR  IN  POLITICAL  RIGHTS. 

FELLOW-CITIZEXS  : 

In  olden  times  the  wife  was  entirely  subject  to  man; 
she  was  the  slave  of  her  husband.  If  a  man  wanted  a 
wife,  she  was  robbed  by  him,  or  sold  to  him  by  her 
father.  In  England  till  the  last  century  she  was  given 
away  by  the  father;  a  bad  custom  which  the  poets  often 
assailed  in  their  plays;  it  is  now  fallen  in  disuse.  Wo- 
man ought  to  be  as  free  as  men:  By  nature  their 
rights  ought  to  be  equal,  for  women  belong,  like  men,  to 
mankind;  both  have  the  like  nature,  the  like  des- 
tination, and,  in  general,  the  like  faculties.  But,  they 


152  POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    QUESTIONS. 


say,  the  Christian  religion  restored  the  wife  to  her  just 
rights.  No,  for  on  her  wedding  day  she  has  to  avow 
obedience  to  her  husband.  She  is  denied  the  right  of 
suffrage,  though  she  has  to  pay  taxes.  But  without 
representation  there  is  no  right  of  taxation — a  prin- 
ciple for  which  our  forefathers  fought  the  Revolutionary 
war. 

"BUT  IX  A  FAMILY  ONE  RULER  IS  WANTED." 

But  it  is  claimed,  that  in  a  family  one  person  must  be 
the  ruler.  It  is  not  so  in  every  association,  not  in 
partnership.  Do  husbands  not  boast  that  wives  are 
their  better  halves?  Why,  then,  do  they  preclude  them 
from  the  use  of  equal  rights?  The  equality  of  married 
persons  is  not  only  the  sole  mode  of  justice  to  both  sides, 
but  also  necessary  for  their  happiness  and  for  the  moral 
cultivation  of  mankind.  The  family  should  be  a  school 
of  sympathy  in  equality,  of  living  together  in  love, 
without  power  on  one  side  and  obedience  on  the  other; 
this  it  ought  to  be  between  the  parents;  it  would  then  be 
a  model  to  the  children.  I  have  no  relish  for  the  doct- 
rine: "what  is  mine,  is  yours,"  but:  "what  is  yours,  is 
not  mine."  In  most  Constitutions  of  our  country  equal- 
ity of  rights  of  property  is  already  secured  to  woman; 
in  this  way  also  girls  cannot  be  entrapped  by  wooers 
who  propose  for  the  sole  purpose  of  getting  their  money. 

The  arrangement  by  which  the  man  earns  the  income, 
and  the  wife  superintends  the  domestic  expenditure, 
seems  in  general  the  most  suitable  division  of  labor. 

SPECIAL  DUTIES  OF  THE  WIFE. 

Besides,  the  special  part  of  the  wife  is  the  physical 
suffering  of  bearing  children  ,*and  the  whole  responsibil' 
ity  of  their  care  and  education  in  early  years;  indeed 
shs  takes  her  fair  share,  or  usually  takes  the  larger.  I 
avow  that  my  parents  are  my  greatest  benefactors,  but, 


POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    QUESTIONS.  153 


if  I  must  distinguish  between  them  I  would  say  that 
my  mother  was  my  greater  benefactor.  And  still, 
though  my  father  enjoys  every  constitutional  right,  my 
mother  is  denied  the  right  of  suffrage.  Is  this  legal 
justice? 

••BUT  WOMEN  ARE  UNFIT,  BY    NATURE,   FOR    PUBLIC  AFFAIRS 
AND  HIGHER  PERFORMANCES  OF  MIND." 

But,  they  object,  "women  are  unfit  for  public  affairs." 
The  same  law  which  excludes  unfit  men  excludes  unfit 
women;  at  least  a  FEW  will  be  fit.  Can  a  woman  not  be 
a  Homer,  an  Aristotle,  Michael  Angelo,  or  a  Beethoven? 
She  can  be  a  Queen  Elizabeth,  an  Empress  Maria 
Theresa,  a  Deborah,  a  Joan  of  Arc.  "Well,  but  after 
all,  men  have  larger  brains  than  women."  This  fact 
is  doubtful,  nay,  its  assertion  is  untrue,  according  to  the 
doctrine  of  many  celebrated  physicians.  They  say  this: 
"Woman's  body  has  less  dimensions.  Comparatively, 
women  have  as  much  brain  as  men.  In  the  weight  of 
male  and  female  brain  there  is,  comparatively  no  differ- 
ence." Besides,  it  may  be  said  that  the  h'rain  of  women 
is  finer,  that  their  blood  circulates  quicker  to  the  brain; 
their  brain  is  sooner  exhausted,  but,  too,  is  sooner  re- 
covering itself. 

OPINIONS  OF  CELEBRATED  MEN  ON  WOMEN'S  RIGHTS. 

OF  STUART  MILL. — But  I  will  not  urge  further  my 
opinion;  I  wish  to  present  the  verdict  of  highly  cele- 
brated authorities  on  women's  rights.  Plato,  the  re- 
nowned Greek  philosopher,  two  thousand  years  ago, 
taught  the  doctrine  that  both  sexes  ought  to  be<  free. 
Permit  me  to  quote,  a  few  passages  from  the  famous 
book  of  Stuart  Mill,  "Subjection  of  Women."  Says  he: 
"Women  are  not  capable  for  the  lucrative  occupations 
and  the  high  social  functions.  Are  women  less  gifted 


154  POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    QUESTIONS. 

than  men?  They  have  proved  themselves  ca;  able  of 
everything  which  is  done  by  men.  It  is  wrong  to  ex- 
clude one-half  of  mankind  from  the  several  vocations 
of  life.  They  have  the  right  to  choose  their  occupation, 
e.  g.,  to  be  physicians  and  lawyers."  Again:  "They 
can  require  the  suffrage  as  their  guarantee  of  just 
and  equal  consideration."  And  again:  "In  the  mediseva  1 
centuries  women  induced  the  Northern  conquerors  to 
adopt  Christian  religion,  because  it  favors  women  more 
than  heathenism.  Courage  and  military  virtues  were 
then  exercised  by  knights  from  the  desire  to  be  admired 
by  women.  So  arose  the  spirit  of  chivalry;  of  courage, 
gentleness,  generosity  against  the  defenseless  man,  and 
submission  and  worship  directed  toward  women."  So 
much  for  Stuart  Mill. 

OF  Louis  BUCHNER. — Louis  Buchner,  author  of  the 
celebrated  work,  "Matter  and  Force,"  wrote  in  his  book 
"Position  of  Man  in  Nature:"  "The  subjection  of  women 
is  still  a  remnant  of  the  barbarous  ages,  when  man  be- 
ing stronger  than  she  forced  her  even  to  pull  the  plow, 
meanwhile  lying  himself  idle  upon  the  bear's  skin." 
And  again:  "Some  physicians  affirm  that  women's  brain 
is  smaller  than  that  of  a  man."  But  Buchner,  who  is 
himself  a  physician,  answers  them  that  the  female  body 
is  also  smaller  and  more  refined  than  that  of  man. 

OF  WENDELL  PHILIPPS. — The  authors  referred  to 
are,  the  one  an  Englishman,  the  other  a  German.  Let 
me  quote  now  from  Americans.  Wendell  Philipps,  per- 
haps the  greatest  American  orator,  says  in  a  speech: 
"Taxation  and  representation  must  be  co-extensive.  No 
single  principle  of  liberty  has  been  enunciated  since 
1688  until  now,  that  does  not  cover  the  claim  of  woman; 
in  the  preamble  of  the  Constitution  is  no  distiction  of 
the  sex  made.  Open  to  women  the  studio  of  the  artist, 


POLITICAL     AND    SOCIAL    QUESTION*.  155 

the  practice  of  the  lawyer,  all  indoor  trades  of  society; 
take  some  for  design,  counters,  public  libraries,  and 
registries,  merchants,  accounts,  surgeons — let  woman 
choose  her  vocation  herself,  let  her  follow  God  and 
nature,  not  the  law  of  man." 

Or  THE  BOSTON  INVESTIGATOR: — The  Boston  In- 
vestigator argues  in  this  way:  "An  over-cautious  old 
lady  once  sa  d  to  her  venturesome  boy  John:  'John, 
don't  you  ever  go  into  the  water  until  you  have  learned 
how  to  swim.'  So  with  many  of  those  people,  who,  re- 
fusing the  ballot  to  woman,  give  her  no  encouragement 
that  she  will  ever  be  prepared  for  it;  for  if  she  must 
wait  until  every  objection  to  her  voting  is  removed,  we 
fear  it  will  never  come.  We  don't  like  that  doctrine. 
The  only  question  to  be  asked  ol  any  reform  is  simply 
this:  Is  it  right?,  is  IT  RIGHT?  IS  IT  RIGHT?  If  it  is, 
then  support  it,  first,  last  and  always,  and  die  rather 
than  to  give  it  up,  for  it  is  far  more  glorious  to  fall  in 
maintaining  the  right  than  to  triumph  in  the  wrong." 

OF  COL.  ROBERT  INGERSOLL. — Col.  Robert  Inger- 
soll,  in  his  great  speech  on  "Human  Rights,"  delivered 
in  Cincinatti  during  the  Convention  of  the  National 
Liberal  League,  said:  "We  demand  next  that  woman 
be  put  upon  an  equality  with  man.  Why  not?  Why 
shouldn't  men  be  decent  enough  in  the  managsment  of 
the  politics  of  the  country  for  women  to  mingle  with 
them?  It  is  an  outrage  that  anyone  should  live  in  this 
country  for  sixty  or  seventy  years,  and  be  forced  to 
obey  the  laws,  without  having  any  voice  in  making 
them.  Let  us  give  woman  the  opportunity  to  care  for 
herself,  since  men  are  not  decent  enough  to  care  for 
her." 

OF  TIII-:  NATIONAL  WOMAN  SUFFUACK  ASSOCIA- 
TION.— Last,  but  not  least,  are  the  arguments  of  Airier- 


156  POLITICAL    AND   SOCIAL    QUESTIONS. 


can  ladies,  proffered  in  the  woman's  rights  question. 
Thousands  of  them  have  advocated  them.  Suffice  it 
that  I  report  only  the  remarkable  words  of  Elizabeth 
Cady  Stanton,  President  of  the  National  Woman  Suff- 
rage Association,  of  Susan  Anthony,  Vice  President, 
and  of  Joslyn  Gage,  chairman  of  the  executive  com- 
mittee, contained  in  their  appeal  to  Congress,  namely: 
"The  40,000  votes  for  Woman  Suffrage  in  Michigan, 
the  9,070  votes  in  Kansas,  the  6,666  votes  in  Colorado, 
the  large  votes  in  many  State  Legislatures,  th:  right  to 
vote  on  school  questions  already  granted  to  women  in 
Kansas,  New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts,  Minnesota, 
Colorado,  Oregon,  the  recent  passage  in  the  Legislature 
of  Minnesota  of  a  resolution  asking  Congress  to  sub- 
mit a  Sixteenth  Amendment  j  providing  for  Woman 
Suffrage,  thj  general  suffrage  already  secured  to  women 
in  Wyoming  and  Utah,  these  and  countless  other  ad- 
vance tests  throughout  the  country,  have  developed  the 
fact  that  the  most  worthy  and  intelligent  among  men 
are  in  favor  of  equal  rights  for  woman." 

CONCLUSION. 

Would  not  mankind  be  all  the  better  off  if  women 
were  in  every  respect  free?  Certainly.  Wives,  then, 
will  not  sufier  more  from  husbands.  The  mass  of 
mental  faculties  for  the  service  of  mankind  will  then 
be  doubled.  The  consciousness  a  woman  would  have, 
that  she  had  the  same  rights  as  man,  would  expand 
immensely  her  faculties,  and  improve  her  moral  senti- 
ment. Mothers  will  then  have  a  greater  influence  over 
their  sons,  loved  maidens  over  their  lovers,  forwarding 
so  the  progress  of  civilization.  Wives  and  mothers 
wrould  then  be  much  happier,  for  freedom  ennobles 
nations,  men  and  women.  Therefore,  fellow  citizens, 
deliver,  by  all  means,  woman  from  her  legal  thraldom. 


rOLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    QUESTIONS.  157 


We  have  abolished  the  slavery  of  the    black    man,  let 
us  also  abolish  the  bondage  of  woman!. 

A  MISALLIANCE. 

Translated  from  "Don  Quixote,"  of  M.  Cervantes. 

It  was  not  long  ago  that  in  Europe  marriages 
between  the  noble  castes  and  the  common  people 
were  unlawful  and  prohibited;  and  even  now-a-days 
noblemen  dislike  such  misalliances,  and  sometimes 
disdain  their  wives  who  are  of  low  extraction. 
Many  disasters  have  resulted  from  such  marriage  laws. 
Fr.  Schiller  has  depicted  them  in  his  play  "Cabal  and 
Love''  which  is  one  of  the  best  tragedies  in  the  German 
language.  Let  us  hear  what  Crevantes,  the  best  author 
in  the  Spanish  language,  has  to  say  on  this  head.  He 
gives  the  following  narrative  in  his  celebrated  work 
'•Adventures  of  Don  Quixote  de  laMancha." 

Don  Fernando,  son  of  a  Spanish  duke,  loved  the 
daughter  of  a  rich  farmer  in  the  country,  who  was  a 
vassal  of  his  father.  The  _iame  of  the  daughter  was 
Dorothea.  She  was  pretty,  sensible  and  honest.  Her 
superior  qualities  captivated  Don  Fernando  to  so  great 
an  extent  that  he  resolved  to  promise  to  marry  her,  be- 
cause to  do  otherwise  was  to  solicit  the  impossible. 
After  having  received  his  solemn  promise  of  marriage, 
she  yielded  to  his  importunity.  But  after  having  en- 
joyed her,  his  desires  subsided,  his  eagerness  cooled,  he 
left  Dorothea,  and  accompanied  his  friend  Cardenio  to 
the  residence  of  his  father.  The  deceived  maiden 
ashamed  of  her  lapse  left  her  parents,  and  hid  herself 
in  the  wilderness  of  the  Sierra  Morena.  When  Don 
Fernando  stayed  with  Cardenio,  he  saw  Lucinda,  to 
whom  his  friend  was  betrothed.  He  fell  in  love  with 
her  also,  betrayed  Cardenia,  and  solicited  the  parents  of 


158  POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    QUESTIONS. 

Lucinda  for  her  hand.  They  consented,  because  Fer- 
nando was  the  son  of  a  duke;  but  Lucinda  refused  to 
obey  them,  and  absconded  to  a  convent.  Garden!  o,  dis- 
tracted by  the  loss  of  his  bride,  also  retired  to  the 
Sierra  Morena.  There  both,  Cardenio,  and  Dorothea, 
were  met  by  Don  Quixote  and  his  friends  (a  parson, 
and  a  barber,)  and  the  whole  company  resolved  to  go  to 
the  residence  of  Don  Quixote,  and  on  the  road  they 
stayed,  during  night,  in  a  side-way-inn.  ISTow,  gentle 
reader,  permit  me  to  introduce  to  you  Cervantes  who 
will  continue  this  remarkable  story  in  his  own  words. 
(Don  Quixote,  1st  part,  36th  ch.) 

Meanwhile,  the  inn-keeper,  who  was  standing  at  the 
door  of  the  inn,  said:  '"There  comes  a  nice  troop  of 
guests;  if  they  stop  here,  we  shall  have  much  joy." 
"What  people  are  they?"  asked  Cardenio.  The  inn- 
keeper replied:  -'Four  men  on  horseback,  a  la  gineta,* 
with  lancets  and  targets,  all  with  black  veils,  and  with 
them  a  woman  comes,  on  a  side.saddle,  dressed  in  white, 
and  her  face  likewise  covered,  and  two  other  lads  on 
foot."  "Are  they  very  near?"  asked  the  parson.  "So 
near,"  answered  the  inn-keeper,  "that  they  already  ar- 
rive." When  Dorothea  heard  this,  she  covered  her 
face,  Cardenio  entered  the  chamber  of  Don  Quixote 
and  hardly  had  they  done  so,  when  all,  mentioned  by 
the  inn-keeper,  entered  the  inn:  and  when  the  four 
horsemen  (who  appeared  to  be  gentlemen)  had  alighted, 
they  went  to  assist  the  lady  to  dismount;  and  one  of 
them,  taking  her  in  his  arms,  placed  her  on  a  chair 
which  was  at  the  entry  of  the  chamber  where  Cardenio 
had  retreated.  During  the  whole  time  neitner  she  nor 
the  men  had  taken  oft  their  veils,  or  spoken  a  word, 


*  A  mode  c/t  riding  with  short  stirrups. 


POLITICAL     AND    SOCIAL    QUESTIONS. 


only  the  lady,  when  si -ting  down  in  the  chair,  heaved 
a  deep  sigh,  and  let  her  arms  hang  down  like  a  weak 
.and  fainting  person;  the  footmen  took  the  horses  to  the 
stable.  The  parish-priest  seeing  this  desired  to  know 
who  these  people  were,  with  the  masks  and  in  such 
a  silence,  went  there  where  the  servants  stood  and 
asked  one  of  them  what  he  wished  to  know; 
who  answered:  "In  truth  Sir,  I  do  not  know 
who  the  people  are;  I  only  know  that  it  seems 
that  they  are  people  of  quality,  especially  he 
who  took  the  lady,  you  have  seen,  in  his  arms,  and  I 
say  this  because  all  the  rest  pay  him  respect  and  noth- 
ing is  done  but  what  he  commands."  "And  who  is  the 
lady?"asked  the  priest.  "Neither  can  I  tell  that,"  an- 
swered the  servant,  "because  on  the  whole  road  I  have 
not  seen  her  face;  to  be  sure  I  heard  her  often  sigh,  and 
utter  such  groans  that  it  seemed  as  if  she  would  exhale 
her  soul;  and  it  is  no  wonder  that  we  don't  know  more 
than  we  have  said,  because  my  comrade  and  I  have 
accompanied  them  only  two  days:  tor  having  met  them 
on  the  road,  they  entreated  and  persuaded  us  to  go 
with  them  as  far  as  Andalusia,  offering  to  pay"* us 
well," — "Did  you  hear  the  name  of  one  of  them?" — 
"Certainly  not,  because  all  travel  in  a  wondrous  silence, 
nothing  is  heard  from  them  but  the  sighs  and  sobs  of 
the  poor  lady,  which  move  our  pity,  and  we  believe, 
without  doubt,  that  she  goes  enforced,  wheresoever  she 
goes  and  as  it  may  inferred  from  the  dress,  she  is  a  nun, 
or  is  to  become  one,  what  is  more  likely:  and  perhaps, 
because  she  does  not  like  the  Order  of  a  nun,  she  is 
so  sorrowful."  "That  may  be  so,"  said  the  priest,  and 
leaving  them  he  returned  where  Dorothea  fwas,  'who 
having  heard  the  veiled  lady  sighing,  moved  by  natural 
compassion,  approached  her,  and  said  to  her:  "What 


1.00  I'OLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    QUESTInN>. 

ails  you,  dear  lady?  See,  if  it  be  an  evil  that  women 
are  used  to  or  experienced  to  cure:  I,  for  my  pare, 
offer  you  the  good  will  to  serve  you."  During  all  this 
the  sorrowful  lady  kept  silence,  and  though  Dorethea 
made  her  again  greater  offers,  she,  however,  persisted  in 
her  silence,  till  the  cavalier  in  the  mask,  whom  the 
others  obeyed,  as  the  servant  said,  came  up,  and  said  to 
Dorothea:  "Do  not  trouble  yourself,  madam,  to  offer 
something  to  this  woman,  because  she  is  used  not  to 
acknowledge  any  favor  which  is  done  to  her;  nor  solicit 
her  to  answer  you,  unless  you  wish  to  hear  a  lie  from 
her."  "I  have  never  uttered  one;"  presently  said  she 
who  till  now  had  been  silent;  "on  the  contrary,  I  see  me 
now  in  such  a  misfortune,  because  I  was  so  sincere,  and 
without  lying  schemes,  and  I  wish  you  to  be  yourself 
witness  of  it,  because  merely  my  veracity  causes  you  to 
be  false  and  lying." 

Cardenio  heard  these  words  very  clearly  and  distinct- 
ly, because  he  was  so  near  to  her  who  uttered  them,  for 
only  the  door  of  the  chamber  of  Don  Quixote  was  in 
the  midst,  and  therefore,  as  he  heard  them,  he  cried 
aloud:  "For  God's  sake!  What  do  I  hear?  What  voice 
is  that  which  has  reached  my  ears?"  At  this  out-cry  the 
lady,  quite  surprised,  turned  her  head,  and  not  seeing 
him  who  uttered  it,  she  started  up,  and  was  going  to 
enter  the  chamber;  as  ihz  cavalier  saw  this,  he  detain- 
ed her,  not  letting  her  move  one  step.  By  her  pertur- 
bation and  restlessness  the  taffet  with  which  she  kept 
her  face  covered  fell  off  from  her,  and  revealed  an  in- 
comparable beauty,  and  a  wonderful  face,  although  pale 
and  terrified;  for  her  eyes  turned  round  to  all  places 
which  met  her  sight  with  so  much  eagerness  that  she 
seemed  to  be  out  of  her  wits  and  rendered,  by  this  bear- 
ing, Dorothea  and; all  who  beheld  her  quite  sad,  because 


POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    QUESTIONS.  161 


they  did  not  know  its  reason.  The  cavalier  held  her 
fast  by  the  shoulders,  and  being  so  much  occupied  in 
taking  hold  of  her  he  could  not  succeed  in  replacing 
the  mask  which  was  falling  off  and,  in  fact,  fell  off  en- 
tirely, and  as  Dorothea  who  held  embraced  the  lady 
raised  her  eyes,  she  saw  that  he  who  also  held  her  em  - 
braced,  was  her  husband,  Don  Fernando.  As  she  had, 
scarcely,  recognized  him,  she  fell,  darting,  from  her  in- 
most heart,  a  long,  dismal  Oh!  backward  in  a 
swoon:  and  had  not  the  barber,  who  stood 
close  by,  caught  her  in  his  arms,  she  would  have  fallen 
to  the  ground.  The  priest  hastened  to  take  away  her 
veil  in  order  to  throw  water  in  her  face,  and  as  soon  as 
Don  Fernando  looked  at  her  he  recognized  her,  for  it 
was  he  who  held  the  other  lady  in  his  arms;  and  he 
turned  like  dead  at  her  aspect;  but  nevertheless  he  did 
not  cease  to  take  hold  of  Lucinda,  who  was  the  lady 
that  endeavored  to  get  loose  from  his  arms;  she  had 
known  Cardenio  by  his  sigh,  and  he  had  recognized  her. 

Cardenio,  also,  heard  the  shriek  Dorothea  gave  when 
she  fainted,  and  believing  that  it  was  his  Lucinda,  ter- 
rified, rushed  from  the  chamber.  It  was  Don  Fer- 
nando whom  he  first  saw,  and  who  held  Lucinda  em- 
braced. Den  Fernando,  too,  recognized  Cardenio  im- 
mediately, and  all  three,  Lucinda,  Cardenio,  and  Do- 
rothea remained  silent,  and  in  .suspense,  as  if  they  did 
not  know  what  had  befallen  them.  All  looked  at  one 
another,  Dorothea  at  Don  Fernando,  Don  Fernando  at 
Cardenio,  Cardenio  at  Lucinda,  and  Lucinda  at  Car- 
denio. (Don  Fernando,  who  had  found  out  the  eon- 
vent  in  which  Luciuda  had  taken  refuge,  carried  her 
off  by  force,  with  the  help  of  his  companions). 

The  first  who  broke  the  silence  was  Lucinda,  who 
spoke  to  Fernando  in  this  manner:  "Let  *ie  approach, 


162  POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    QUJ>TIONS. 

Don  Fernando,  for  the  sake  that  you  ought  to  be  what 
you  are  (although  you  do  it  not  by  another  regard); 
let  me  approach  the  wall,  the  ivy  of  which  I  am;  the 
staff  from  which  neither  your  importunities  nor  your 
threats,  your  promises  nor  presents  could  part  me; 
remark  how  Heaven  has  conduceed  me,  by  unusual  and 
hidden  ways,  into  the  presence  of  my  true  husband; 
and  you  know  by  a  thousand  costly  experiences  that 
nothing  but  death  would  suffice  to  efface  him  from  my 
memory:  therefore  may  so  many  undeceivings,  (if  you 
cannot  do  otherwise)  induce  you  to  convert  your  love 
into  rage,  your  good  will  into  indignation,  and  to  finish 
my  life;  for,  as  I  yield  it  in  the  presence  of  my  good 
husband,  I  give  it  up  as  well  employed;  he  will,  per- 
haps, by  my  death,  be  convinced  of  the  faith  I  kept  to 
him  to  the  utmost  danger  of  my  life." 

Dorothea,  meanwhile,  had  recovered  her  senses,  and 
listened  to  all  the  expressions  given  by  Lucinda,  from 
which  she  learned  who  she  was;  and  seeing  that  Don 
Fernando  yet  did  not  release  her  from  his  arms,  nor 
answer  her  words,  she  exerted  herself  as  much  as  possi- 
ble, rose,  and  threw  herself  on  her  knees  at  his  feet, 
and  shedding  many  sad  tears,  began  to  speak  to  him  in 
this  way 

"If  not,  my  lord,  the  rays  of  this  sun  you  hold 
eclipsed  in]  your  arms  would  take  away  and  obfuscate 
those  of  yours,  you  would  already  have  seen  that  she 
who  is  kneeling  at  your  feet,  is  the  unfortunate  Dorothea, 
unhappy  as  long  time  as  you  please.  I  am  she  who, 
locked  in  the  limits  of  honesty,  enjoyed  a  contented  life, 
till  she  opened  the  doors  of  her  prudence  to  the  voice 
of  your  importunity  and  seemingly  just  and  affectionate 
feelings,  and  surrendered  to  you  the  keys  of  her  liberty: 
a  gift  so  badly  acknowledged  by  you,  wrhich  is  evidently 


POLITIC 'A  I,     AND    SOCIAL    (jri-;sT!ONS.  163 

-.shown  by  the  fact  that  it  was  necessary  to  find  me  in 
thi^  place,  and  to  see  you  in  the  way  that  I  see  you. 
But,  nevertheless,  I  do  not  wish  you  to  imagine  that  I 
came  here  following  the  path  of  dishonor,  while  only 
grief  and  the  affliction  to  see  me  forgotten  by  yon 
brought  me  hither.  You  desired  me  to  be  yours;  and 
desired  it  in  such  a  manner  that,  though  you  now  wish 
me  not  to  be  it,  it  will  not  be  possible  that  you  cease  to 
be  mine.  See,  my  lord,  what  can  be  the  recompense 
for  Lucinda's  beauty  and  nobleness  for  which  you  neg- 
lect the  incomparable  good  will  which  I  have  for  you? 
You  cannot  fall  to  the  share  of  the  beautiful  Lucinda, 
because  you  are  mine,  nor  can  she  be  yours,  because  she 
is  Garde nio's;  and  it  will  be  easier,  if  you  will  reflect, 
to  reduce  your  will  to  love  her  who  adores  you  than  to 
induce  her  who  abhors  you  to  love  you  well.  You  im- 
portuned my  carelessness,  you  required  my  wholeness, 
you  were  not  ignorant  of  my  station,  you  know  well  in 
what  way  I  delivered  myself  to  your  desire;  no  place 
nor  refuge  remains  to  you  to  call  yourself  deceived; 
and,  if  it  is  as  it  is,  and  you  are  as  true  a  Christian  as 
you  are  a  cavalier,  why  do  you,  by  so  many  shifts,  de- 
lay to  make  me  happy  in  the  end  as  yon  made  me  in 
the  beginning?  And  if  you  do  not  love  me  such  as  I  am, 
as  your  true  and  legitimate  wife,  love  and  admit  me,  at 
least,  as  your  slave,  for,  however  I  be  in  your  possession, 
I  shall  estimate  myself  happy  and  very  fortunate.  Do 
not  permit  that,  by  abandoning  me,  the  gossips  arrange 
meetings  for  my  d  sgrace;  do  not  afflict  so  much  the  old 
age  of  my  parents,  because  the  loyal  services  which  they 
as  good  vassals  always  have  rendered  to  yours,  not  de- 
serve it,  and  if  it  seems  to  you  that  you  annihilate  your 
blood  by  mixing  it  with  mine,  consider  that,  there  -ire 
few  noblemen  or  none  in  the  world,  who  did  not  take 


1()4  POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    QC1>'1  ! 

this  way,  and  th  t  nobleness  derived  from  women  does 
not  matter  in  illustrious  descents;  so  much  less,  as  true 
nobleness  consists  in  virtue,  and  if  you  are  deficient  of 
that  in  denying  me  what  you  so  rightly  owe  me,  I  shall 
remain  with  more  advantages  of  nobleness  than  you 
have.  Finally,  sir,  the  last  I  tell  you,  though  witnesses 
are  your  words,  which  not  must  be  lies,  if  you  appreci- 
ate yourself  for  that  wherefore  you  depreciate  me:  wit- 
ness is  th3  sign-manual  you  have  made,  and  witness  is 
Heaven  whom  you  called  to  witness  of  what  you  prom- 
ised me;  and  if  all  this  is  deficient,  your  own  conscience 
will  not  fail  to  utter  cries  in  the  midst  of  your  pleasures 
repeating  the  truth  I  have  told  you,  and  disturbing 
your  best  enjoyments  and  gratification. 

The  doleful  Dorothea  said  these  and  other  words 
with  such  feeling  and  so  much  tears  that  even  those 
who  accompanied  Don  Fernando,  and  all  who  were 
present,  were  crying.  Don  Fernando  listened  without 
answering  a  word,  till  she  had  put  an  end  to  hers,  be- 
ginning such  sighs  and  sobs  that  he  who  would  not  be 
moved  to  compassion  must  have  a  heart  of  bronze. 
Luciuda  looked  at  her,  not  less  afflicted  lay  her  grief 
than  admiring  her  great  discretion  and  beauty,  and 
although  she  wished  to  approach  her  and  tell  her  some 
words  of  consolation,  the  arms  of  Don  Fernando  which 
held  her  compressed  did  not  yermit  to  her  to  do  so; 
who,  full  of  confusion  and  fright,  after  a  long  time, 
while  he  was  looking  at  Dorothea,  opened  the  arms 
and  setting  Lucinda  free,  said:  "You  have  conquered, 
beautiful  Dorothea,  you  have  conquered,  because  it  is 
not  possible  to  have  courage  to  deny  so  many  truthful 
reasons  united."  Lucinda  was  to  fall  to  the  ground  in 
the  swoon  she  had  had  as  Don  Fernando  released  her, 
but  Cardenio,  standing  close  by,  who  had  placed  him- 


POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    QUESTIONS.  165 


self  behind  the  shoulders  of  Don  Fernando,  in  order  not 
to  be  perceived  by  him,  postponing  all  fear,  and  risking 
every  donger,  hastened  to  support  Luanda,  and,  clasp- 
ing her  in  his  arms,  said  to  her:  "If  pious  Heaven 
will  that  you  find  some  rest,  my  loyal,  constant  and 
beautiful  mistress,  I  believe  that  you  will  nowhere  find 
it  surer  than  in  these  ar.ias,  which  receive  you  presently, 
and  received  you  another  time,  when  fortune  wished 
that  I  should  call  you  mine."  Lucinda,  at  these  words, 
cast  her  eyes  on  Cardenio,  and  recognizing  him  first  by 
the  voice,  and  assuring  herself  by  his  face  that  he  it 
was,  she  threw,  as  if  out  of  her  senses,  and  careless  of 
any  honest  respect,  her  arms  around  his  neck,  and  join- 
ing her  face  to  that  of  Cardenio,  said  to  him:  "Yes, 
my  lord,  you  are  the  true  owner  of  this,  your  captive, 
although  the  contrary  fate  even  so  much  hinders  it,  and 
though  they  ever  so  much  threaten  this  life,  which  is 
sustained  by  yours."  This  was  a  strange  speech  for 
Don  Fernando,  and  all  who  were  present,  astonished 
by  such  an  event,  never  seen  before.  It  appeared  to 
Dorothea  that  Don  Fernando  had  changed  color,  and 
that  he  offered  to  wreak  his  vengeance  on  Cardeiiio, 
because  she  saw  him  putting  the  hand  to  the  hilt  of  his 
sword,  and  as  fast  as  she  thought  it  she  embraced  with 
unnoticed  quietness  his  knees,  kissing  them,  and  hold- 
ing him  compressed  as  if  she  would  not  let  him  move, 
and,  withont  stopping  her  tears  a  moment,  she  said: 
"What  are  you  going  to  do,  my  only  refuge  in  this  un- 
expected, dangerous  moment?  You  hold  your  wife  at 
your  feet,  and  she  whom  you  want  to  be  yours,  is  in  the 
arms  of  her  husband;  think  if  you  are  right,  or  if  it  is 
possible  to  undo  what  Heaven  has  done,  or  if  it  will  suit 
you  to  attempt  to  make  equal  with  you  her  who,  neg- 
lecting all  inconvenience,  confirmed  in  her  truth  and 


166  POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    QUESTIONS. 

constancy,  shows,  in  your  sight,  her  eyes  bedew- 
ing the  face  and  bosom  of  her  real  husband  with 
tears  of  love.  For  God's  and  your  own  sake,  I  beseech 
and  implore  you  that  this  manifest  declaration  of  their 
love  not  only  may  not  increase  your  anger,  but  extin- 
guish it  in  a  manner,  that  you  in  tranquility  permit 
these  two  lovers  to  keep  their  affection  without  your 
hindrance,  as  long  as  Heaven  will  grant  it  to  them,  and 
hereby  you  will  show  the  gene  ;osity  of  your  illustrious 
and  noble  heart,  and  the  world  will  see  that  reason  has 
more  strength  with  you  than  passion." 

While  Dorothea  was  saying  this,  Garden  io,  although 
holding  Lucinda  embraced,  did  not  forsake  the  eyes  of 
Don  Fernando,  resolved,  if  he  should  see  him  making 
a  movement  for  his  injury,  to  prepare  as  well  as  he  could 
for  defense  ond  offense  against  all  who  should  show 
themselves  intent  to  his  damage,  although  it  would 
cost  his  life;  but  in  this  moment  the  friends  of  Don  Fernan- 
do, and  the  parish -priest-  and  the  barber,  who  had  been 
present  during  all  what  happened,  approached,  besides 
that  good  Sancho  Panza  was  not  missing:  and  all  sur- 
rounded Don  Fernando,  beseeching  him  to  look  gra- 
ciously to  the  tears  of  Dorothea,  and  as  what  she  had 
told  in  her  address  was  truth,  not  to  concede  that  she 
was  defrauded  in  her  justest  hopes,  that  he  should  con- 
sider that  they  all,  not  by  chance,  as  it  seemed,  but  by  a 
special  Peovidence  of  Heaven  had  joined  in  a  place 
where  nobody  could  expect  it;  and,  said  the  priest,  that 
he  should  perceive  that  only  death  could  separate 
Lucinda  from  Cardenio,  and,  although  the  edge  of  a 
sword  divided  them,  they  would  consider  their  death 
the  happiest  event,  and  that,  in  irremediable  cases,  it 
was  the  highest  prudence  to  show  a  generous  heart  by 
forcing  and  conquering  himself,  allowing  that  the  two 


POLITICAL     AND    SOCIAL    QUESTIONS.  167 

<only  by  his  will,  enjoyed  the  boon  Heaven  had 
already  conceded  to  them;  that  he  should  put 
his  eyes  also  on  the  beauty  of  Dorothea,  and  he  would 
see  that  few  or  none  could  equal  her,  much  less  sur- 
pass her,  and  that  she  joined  to  her  beauty  her  humility 
and  the  utmost  love  for  him;  and  above  all  things  he 
-should  note  that,  if  he  boasted  to  be  a  cavalier  and  a 
Christian, he  could  not  do  otherwise  than  to  keep  the  word 
that  he  had  given  her,  and  that  by  keeping  it  he  would 
be  just  toward  God,  and  would  satisfy  discreet  people 
who  know  that  it  is  the  prerogative  of  beauty,  although 
it  be  the  quality  of  a  humble  subject,  if  it  is  accompa- 
nied by  honesty,  to  be  elevated  to  every  hight,  without 
any  mark  of  diminution  of  him  who  elevates  and  raises 
her  to  his  own  condition;  and  if  the  powerful  laws  of 
pleasure  are  executed — so  far  as  no  sin  does  intervene — 
he  who  obeys  them  must  not  be  blamed.  In  fact,  they 
added  to  these  reasons  niany  others,  and  in  such  a  way 
that  the  strong  mind  of  Don  Fernando,  after  all  nour- 
ished by  illustrious  blood,  grew  mild  and  yielded  to  be 
vanquished  by  the  truth,  which  he  could  not  gainsay, 
though  he  wished  to  do  so,  and  the  sign  he  gave  of 
having  surrendered,  and  delivered  himself  to  the  good 
opinion  which  was  proposed  to  him,  was  that  he  bent 
and  embraced  Dorothea,  saying:  '"'Stand  up,  my  dear 
lady,  for  it  is  not  right  that  she  whom  I  keep  in  my 
soul  is  kneeling  at  my  feet;  and  if  I  till  now,  have  not 
given  proofs  of  what  I  say,  it  chanced,  perhaps,  by  or- 
der of  Heaven,  in  order  that  perceiving  in  you  the 
faithfulness  with  which  you  love  me,  I  might  know 
how  to  esteem  you  as  much  as  you  deserve;  I  only  re- 
quest you  not  to  blame  my  bad  manner  and  my  great 
carelessness,  because  the  same  cause  and  force  which 
moved  me  to  accept  you  as  mine,  urged  me  to  endeavor 


168  Jk'OLlTICAL    AND    SOCIAL    QUKSTI 

not  to  be  yours;  and  in  order  to  persuade  you  that  this 
is  the  truth,  turn  and  see  the  eyes  of.  the  presently  sat- 
isfied Lucinda,  and  you  will  find  in  them  the  excuse  of 
all  my  errors;  and  since  she  found  and  obtained  what  she 
desired,  and  I  haye  found  in  you,  what  satisfies  me: 
may  she  live  safe  and  content  many  and  happy  years 
with  her.  Cardenio,  for  I  shall,  on  my  knees,  implore 
Heaven  that  he  may  grant  to  me  such  years  \vitli  my 
Dorothea."*" 

And  saying  this  he  again  embraced  her,  and  joined 
his  face  to  hers  with  such  tender  feelings  that  he  must. 
be  very  careful  lest  his  eyes  gave  a  doubtless 
testimonial  of  his  love  and  repentance.  Luciuda  -and 
Cardenio,  and  almost  all  who  were  present,,  did  not  so. 
because  they  shed  so  many  tears,  either  from  their  own 
content,  or  for  that  of  the  others,  that  it  seemed  no 
otherwise  than  as  if  a  grave  misfortune  had  beiallen  to 
all.  The  admiration,  joined  to  thefiood  of  tears,  lastt-d 
for  some  time,  and  then  Cardenio  and  Lucinda  came  to 
bend  their  knees  before  D.  Fernando,  giving  him  thanks, 
for  the  favor  bestowed  on  them,  in  so  courteous  express- 
ions that  Don  Fernando  did  not  know  what  to  answer 
them:  and  so  he  raised  them  up  and  embraced  them 
with  marks  of  much  love  and  courtesy . 

A  SELECTION  FKOM  THE  TWENTY-FOURTH 
CHAPTER     OF     ED.     BELLAMY'S      CELE- 
BRATED WORK;  "LOOKING  BACKWARD." 

"It  was  thought  one  of  the  most  grievous  features  of 
our  civilization  (in  1889)  that  we  required  so  much 
toil  from  women,  "I  said',  ^but  it  seems  tome  you  get 
more  out  of  them  than  we  did." 

Dr.  Leete  laughed.  "Indeed  we  do,  just  as  we  do 
out  of  our  men.  Yet  the  women  of  this  age  (1989)  are 


POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    QUESTIONS.  169 


happy,  and  those  of  the  19th  century,  unless  con tern  - 
poraryl  references  greatly  mislead  us,  were  very  miserable. 
The  reason  that  women  nowadays  are  so  much  more 
efficient  co-laborers  with  the  men,  and  at  the  same  time 
are  so  happy,  is  that,  in  regard  to  their  work  as  well  as 
men's,  we  follow  the  principle  of  providing  every  one 
the  kind  of  occupation  he  or  she  is  best  adapted  to. 
Women  being  inferior  in  strength  to  men,  and  further 
disqualified  industrially  in  special  ways,  the  kinds  of 
occupation  reserved  for  them  and  the  condition  under 
which  they  persue  them,  have  reference  to  these  facts. 
The  heavier  sorts  of  work  are  everywhere  reserved  for 
men,  the  lighter  occupations  for  women.  Under  no 
circumstances  is  woman  permitted  to  follow  any  em- 
ployment not  perfectly  adapted,  both  as  to  kind  and 
degree  of  labor,  to  her  sex.  Moreover,  the  hours  of 
women's  work  are  considerably  shorter  than  those  of 
men's;  more  frequent'  vacations  are  granted  and  the 
most  careful  provision  is  made  for  rest  when  needed. 
The  men  of  this  day  40  well  appreciate  that  they  owe 
to  the  beauty  and  grace  of  women  the  chief  zest  of 
their  lives  and  their  main  incentive  to  effort,  that  they 
permit  them  to  work  at  all  only  because  it  is  fully 
understood  that  a  certain  regular  requirement  of  labor, 
of  a  sort  adapted  to  their  powers,  is  well  for  body 
and  mind;  during  the  period  of  maximum 
physical  vigor.  We  believe  that  the 

magnificent  health  which  distinguishes  our  women 
from  those  of  your  dayj,  who  seem  to  have  been  so  gen- 
erally sickly t  is  owing  largely  to  the  fact  that  all  alike 
are  furnished  with  healthful  and  inspiring  occupation." 
"I  understand  you,"  I  .said,  "that  .the-  women- 
workers  belong  |  to  the  army  of  industry,  but  how  can 
they  be  under  the  same  system  of  ranking  and  disci 


170  POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    QUESTIONS. 

pline  with  "he  men,  when  the  conditions  of  their   labor 
are  so  different?" 

"They  are  under  an  entirely  different  discipline,"  re- 
plied Dr,  Leete,  "and  constitute  rather  an  allied  force 
than  an  integral  force  of  the  army  of  the  men.  They 
have  a  woman  general-in-chief  and  are  under  exclusively 
feminine  regime.  This  general,  as  also  the  higher 
officers,  is  chosen  by  the  body  of  women  who  have 
passed  the  time  of  service,  in  correspondence  with  the 
manner  in  which  the  chiefs  of  the  masculine  army  and 
the  president  of  the  nation  is  elected.  The  general  of 
the  women's  army  sits  in  the  cabinet  of  the  president, 
and  has  a  veto  on  measures  respecting  women's  work, 
pending  appeals  to  Co  egress.  I  should  have  said,  in 
speaking  of  the  judiciary,  that  we  have  women  on  the 
bench,  appointed  by  the  general  ol  the  women,  as  well 
as  men.  Causes  in  which  both  parties  are  women  are 
determined  by  women  judges:  and  where'  a  man  and'  a 
woman  are  parties  to  a  case,  a  judge  of  either  sex  must 
consent  to  the  verdict.  It  seems  to  us  that  women  were 
more  than  any  other  class  the  victims  of  your  civiliz- 
ation. There  is  something  which  even  at  this  distance  of 
time,  penetrates  one  with  pathos  in  the  spectacle  of  their 
ennuied,  undeveloped  lives,  stunted  at  marriage,  their 
narrow  horizon,  bounded  so  often,  physically,  by  the, 
four  walls  of  home  and  morally  by  a  petty 
circle  of  personal  interests.  I  speak  now  not  of 
the  poorer  classes,  who  were  generally  worked  to  death, 
but  also,  of  the  well  to  do  a'nd  rich.  From  the  great 
sorrows,  as  well  as  the  petty  frets  of  life,  they  had  no 
refuge  in  the  brsezy  out-door  world  of  human  affairs, 
nor  any  interests  save  those  of  the  family.  Such  an 
existence  would  have  softened  men's  brains  or  driven 
them  mad.  All  that  is  changed  to-day.  No  woman 


POLITICAL     AND    SOCIAL    QUESTIONS.  171 

Is  heard  wishing  she  were  a  man,  nor  parents  desiring 
boy  rather  than  girl  children.  Our  girls  are  as  full  of 
ambition  for  their  careers  as  our  boys,  Marriage  when 
it  comes,  does  not  mean  incarceration  for  them,  nor 
does  it  separate  them  in  any  way  from  the  larger  in- 
terests of  society,  the  bustling  life  of  the  world.  Only 
when  maternity  fills  a  woman's  mind  with  new  interests 
does  she  withdraw  from  the  world  for  a  time.  After- 
ward, and,  at  any  time,  she  may  return  to  her  place 
among  her  comrades,  nor  need  sh^  ever  lose  touch  with 
them.  Women  are  a  very  happy  race  now-a-days,  as 
compared  with  that  they  ever  were  before  in  the  world's 
history,  and  their  power  of  giving  happiness  to  men  has 
been  of  course  increased  in  proportion.  As  regards  the 
dependence  of  women  upon  men  support,  which  then 
was  usual,  of  course  natural  attraction  in  case  of  mar- 
riages of  love  may  often  have  made  it  endurable,  though 
for  spirited  women  I  should  fancy  it  muat  always  have 
remained  hnrniliating.  What  then,  must  it  have  been 
in  the  innumerable  cases  where  women,  with  or  without 
form  of  marriage,  had  to  sell  themselves  to  men  to  get 
their  living?  Even  your  contemporaries,  callous  a^  they 
were  to  most  of  the  revolting  aspects  of  their  society, 
seem  to  have  had  an  idea  tint  this  was  not  quite  as  it 
should  be;  but  it  was  still  only  for  pity's  sake  that  they 
deplored  the  lot  of  the  woman.  It  did  not  occur  tb 
them  that  it  was  robbery  as  well  as  cruelty  when  men 
seized  for  themselves  the  whole  product  of  the  world 
and  left  women  to  beg,  and  wheedle  for  their  share. 
Why — but  bless  me,  Mr.  West,  I  am  really  running  on 
at  a  remarkable  rate,  just  as  if  the  robbery,  the  sorrow 
and  the  shame  which  these  poor  women  endured  were 
not  over  a  century  since,  or  as  if  you  were  responsible 
for  what  you  no  doubt  deplored  as  much  as  I  do." 


172  POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    QUESTIONS. 


"I  must  bear  my  share  of  responsibility  for  the  world 
as  it  then  was,"  I  replied.  "  All  I  can  say  in  ex- 
tenuation is  that  until  the  nation  was  ripe  for  the. 
present  system  of  organized  production  and  distribution, 
no  radical  improvement  in  the  positition  of  woman  was 
possible.  The  root  of  her  disability  as  you  say,  was  her 
personal  dependence  upon  man  for  her  livelihood,  and  I 
can  imagine  no  other  mode  of  social  organization  than 
that  you  have  adopted  which  would  have  let  free 
women  of  men,  at  the  same  time  that  it  set  men  free  ol 
one  another.  I  suppose,  by  the  way,  that  so  entire  a 
charge  in  the  position  of  women  cannot  have  taken 
place  without  affecting  in  marked  ways  the  social  re- 
lations of  the  sexes.  That  will  be  a  very  interesting 
study  for  me." 

"The  change  you  will  observe,"  said  Dr.  Leete,  "will 
chiefly  be,  I  think,  the  entire  frankness  and  unrestraint 
which  now  characterizes  those  relations,  as  compared 
with  the  artificiality  wyhich  seems  to  have  marked  them 
in  your  time.  The  sexes  nowT  meet  with  the  ease  of 
perfect  equals,  suitors  to  each  other  for  nothing  but 
love.  In  your  time  the  fact  that  women  were  depend- 
ent for  support  on  men  made  woman  in  reality  the  one 
chiefly  benefited  by  marriage." 

"One  result  which  must  follow  from  the  independ- 
ence of  women,  I  can  see  for  myself,"  I  said,  "There 
can  be  no  marriages  now,  except  those  of  inclination." 

"That  is  a  matter  of  course,"  replied  Dr.  Leete. 
"Think  of  a  world,  in  which  there  are  noth  ng  but 
matches  of  pure  love!  Ah,  me,  Dr.  Leete,  how  far  are 
you  from  being  able  to  understand  what  an  astonishing 
phenomenon  such  a  world  seems  to  a  man  of  the  nine- 
teenth century!" 

"I  can,  however,  to  some  extent,  imagine  it,"  replied 


POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    QUESTIONS.  173 

the  doctor.  "But  the  fact  you  celebrate  that  there  are 
nothing  but  love  matches,  means  even  more,  perhaps, 
than  you  probably  at  first  realize.  It  means  that  for 
the  first  time  in  human  history  the  principle  of  sexual 
selection,  with  its  tendency  to  preserve  and  transmit 
the  better  types  of  the  race,  and  let  the  inferior  types 
drop  out,  has  unhindered  operation.  The  necessities  of 
poverty,  the  need  of  having  a  home,  no  longer  tempt 
women  to  accept  as  the  fathers  of  ther  children  men 
wbom  they  neither  can  love  nor  respect.  Wealth  and 
rank  no  longer  divert  attention  from  personal  qualities. 
Gold  no  longer  'gilds  the  straitened  forehead  of  the 
fool.'  The  gifts  of  person,  mind  and  disposition, 
beauty,  wit,  eloquence,  kindness,  generosity,  geniality, 
courage,  are  sure  of  transmission  to  posterity.  Every 
generation  is  sifted  through,  a  little  finer  mask  than 
the  last,  attributes  that  human  nature  admires  are  pre- 
served, those  that  repel  it  are  left  behind.  There  are, 
of  course,  a  great  many  women  who  with  love  must 
mingle  admiration,  and  seek  to  wed  greatly,  but  these 
not  less  obey  the  same  law,  for  to  wed  greatly  now  is  not 
to  marry  men  of  fortune  or  title,  but  those  who  have 
risen  above  their  fellows  by  the  solidity  or  brilliance  of 
their  services  to  humanity,  These  form  now-a-days  the 
only  aristocracy  with  which  alliance  is  discretion." 

"You  were  speaking,  a  day  or  two  ago,  of  the  physi- 
cal superiority  of  our  people  to  your  contemporaries. 
Perhaps  more  i/nportant  than  any  of  the  causes  I  men- 
tioned then  as  tending  to  save  purification  has  been  the 
effect  of  untrammeled  sexual  election  upon  the  quality 
of  two  or  three  successive  generations.  I  believe  that 
when  you  have  made  a  fuller  study  of  our  people  you 
will  find  in  them  not  only  a  physical,  but  a  mental  and 
moral  improvement.  It  would  be  strange  if  it  wrere  not 


174  POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    QUESTIONS. 

so,  for  not  only  is  one  of  the  great  laws  of  nature  now 
freely  working  out  the  salvation  of  the  race,  but  a  pro- 
found moral  sentiment  has  come  to  its  support.  Indi- 
vidualism, which  in  your  day  was  the  animating  idea  of 
society,  not  only  was  fatal  to  any  vital  sentiment  of 
brotherhood  and  common  interest  among  living  men, 
but  equally  to  any  realization  of  the  responsibility  of 
the  living  for  the  generation  to  follow.  To-day  this 
sense  of  responsibility,  practically  unrecognized  in  all 
previous  ages,  has  become  one  of  the  great  ethical  ideas 
of  the  race;  reinforcing  with  an  intense  conviction  of 
duty,  the  natural  impulse  to  seek  in  marriage  the  best 
and  noblest  of  the  other  sex.  The  result  is,  that  not  all 
the  encouragements  and  incentives  of  every  sort  which 
we  have  provided  to  develop  industry,  talent,  genius, 
excellence  of  whatever  kind,  are  comparable  in  their 
effect  on  our  young  men  with  the  fact  that  our  women 
sit  aloft  as  judges  of  the  race  and  reserve  themselves  to 
reward  the  winners.  Of  all  the  whips,  and  spurs,  and 
baits,  and  prizes,  there  is  none  like  the  thought  of  the 
radiant  faces,  which  laggards  will  find  averted." 

"Celibates  now-a-days  are  almost  invariably  men  who 
have  failed  to  adjust  themselves  creditably  in  the  work 
of  life.  The  woman  must  be  a  courageous  one,  with  a 
very  evil  sort  of  courage  too,  wrhom  pity  for  one  of 
these  unfortunates  should  lead  to  defy  the  opinion  of 
her  generation — for  otherwise  she  is  free — so  far  as  to 
accept  him  for  a  husband.  Our  women  have  risen  to 
the  full  hight  of  their  responsibility  as  the  wardens  of 
the  world  to  come,  to  whose  keeping  the  keys  of  the 
future  are  confided.  Their  feeling  of  duty  in  this  re- 
spect amounts  to  a  sense  of  religious  consecration.  It 
is  a  cult  in  which  they  educate  their  daughters  from 
childhood." 


U.  S.  GRAXT. 


SECTION  FOURTH 

[ISTORICAL  AND  BIOGRAPHICAL. 


POLICY  OF  BISMARK,  CHANCELOR  OF  THE 

GERMAN   EMPIRE.— THE    "CUL- 

TURKAMPF." 

After  the  Franco-Prussian  war,  Bismark  began  wha 
is  called  the  Culturkampf,  i.  e,  the  conflict  against  the 
Catholic  Church  in  the  German  Empire.  Since  the 
last  ecumenical  council  in  1869,  declared  the  Pope  in- 
fallible in  matters  of  faith,  no  law  of  a  state  is  of  any 
validity  against  that  demigod,  for  he  forthwith  enjoins 
upon  all  Roman  Catholics  disobedience  to  the  rules  of 
the  state.  Consequently  there  exists  a  state  within  a 
state.  This  condition  of  things  could  not  continue  after 
the  establishment  of  the  German  Empire.  It  had  not 
freed  itself  from  the  dictation  of  Paris  to  bow  its  neck 
beneath  the  crook  of  Rome.  Therefore,  in  1871  the 
Prussian  government  decreed  the  abolition  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  department  in  the  ministry  of  public 
education,  and  the  inspection  of  public  and  private  ed- 
ucation by  the  state.  In  1873,  it  promulgated  the  laws, 
commonly  known  as  the  May-laws,  by  which  as  a  pre- 
requisite to  clerical  office  a  gymnasium  and  university 
education  was  required,  and  civil  marriage  was  intro- 
duced, also  clergymen  and  others  were  punished  who 
prostituted  the  pulpit  to  purposes  of  political  agitation, 
or  published  documents  (like  papal  encyclicas  and  pas- 
toral letters)  to  disturb  the  public  peace  <feo.  The  Je- 
suits and  other  religious  orders  were  expelled,  and  sev- 


178  HISTORICAL    AND  BIOGRAPHICAL, 

eral  bishops  who  obstinately  disregarded  the  May-laws 
arrested  or  removed.  The  Prussian  ambassador  in 
Rome  received  orders  from  Bismark  to  take  an  indefi- 
nite leave  of  absence,  at  once. 

In  his  Encyclica  (1875)  the  Pope  declared  the  new 
Church  laws  invalid,  and  forbade  all  Roman  Catholicg 
to  render  ooedience  to  them.  The  Prussian  govern 
ment  answered  the  Papal  bull  by  a  law  in  which  all- 
payments  on  the  part  of  the  state  to  the  bishops  and 
other  clergy  were  interdicted  in  all  cases  where  the  lat- 
ter were  unwilling  to  pledge  themselves  to  obey  the 
laws  of  the  state.  Hereby  the  imperial  CuJturkampf 
legislation  was  finished.  Prussia  was  the  centre  of  the 
struggle,  but  Baden,  Wurtemberg,  Bavaria  and  the 
German  Empire,  in  general,  were  also  involved.  Out 
of  eight  episcopal  sees,  in  Bavaria,  three  were  vacant; 
in  Prussia,  out  of  twelve,  eight  were  without  a  bishop. 
Some  of  the  offending  bishops  underwent  imprisonment; 
all  of  them  were  ultimately  obliged  to  leave  Prussia. 

After  the  death  of  Pius  Ninth  the  contest  by-and-by 
abated.  The  new  pope  appeared  willing  to  make  con- 
cessions, and  the  Prussian  government  modified  the  ex- 
isting church  laws  (1880.)  It  sent  again  an  ambassa- 
dor to  the  Vatican,  appointed  bishops,  in  the  bishoprics 
rendered  vacant  by  death,  and  began  to  allow  the 
Roman  Catholic  clergy  to  exercise  their  old  influence  in 
the  administration  of  the  public  schools.  In  other 
matters  the  former  harsh  policy  of  the  government  was 
changed  to  a  policy  of  friendliness  and  reconciliation. 

Presently  (1887(  the  religious  orders  are,  too,  permitted 
to  reenter  into  the  German  Empire!  Bismark  changed 
his  policy  because  he  needed  the  assistance  of  the 
Centre  of  the  Reichstag  to  carry  through  his  reac- 
tionary measures.  He  and  his  master  pursued  the 


HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  179 


project  to  centralize  Germany,  but  the  governments 
of  the  various  German  states  opposed  his  policy, 
because  they  were  afraid  to  be  "Prussianized." 
To  attain  this  end  Bismark  was  willing  to  use 
any  tools,  e.  g.,,  with  the  National  Liberals  he 
had  been  a  free-trader,  with  the  conservative 
landholders  a  protectionist,  with  the  laboring 
classes  a  socialist,  proposing  the  support  of  disabled 
laborers  by  the  state,  by  means  of  a  compulsory  system 
of  accident-insurance  on  the  part  of  employers.  The 
government,  not  the  people,  occupies  the  place  of  im- 
portance, in  his  eyes. 

CAPTURE  AND  EXECUTION  OF  THE  COUNTS 
EGMONT  AND  HORN,  IN  THE  NETH- 
ERLANDS, (1568). 

REMARK  :  Philip  II.,  King-  of  Spain,  established,  in  the  Netherlands, 
the  Inquisition,  and  thereby  caused  revolts;  the  States-General  protessed, 
and  four  hundred  noblemen  concluded  a  league  for  the  purpose  of  de- 
fending their  constitutional  rights,  and  of  opposing  the  Inquisitional 
tribunal,  (1565).  Duke  Alva,  who  governed  the  Netherlands  in  the  name 
of  the  King,  and  had  received  unlimited  power  from  him,  took  the  chiefs 
ot  the  nobility,  the  Counts  Egmont  and  Horn,  prisoners,  and  executed 
them.  An  uncounted  number  of  other  victims  followed  them. 

1:    THEIR  CAPTURE. 
FROM  EGMONT,  TRAGEDY  OF  w.  GOETHE. 

Act  II,  Scene:  Residence  of  Egmont  in  Bruxelles.  Earl  Egmont— William 
of  Orange. 

OR. — I  go;  you  are  waiting  till  Alva  arrives;  God 
be  with  you!  My  absence,  perhaps,  will  save  you.  May- 
be, the  dragon  thinks  that  he  catches  nothing;  if  he 
does  not  devour  both  of  us  together:  Perhaps,  he 
defers  inorder  to  execute  his  plot  with  so  much  more 
security,  and  you  will  see  the  matter  in  its  true  shape. 
But,  then,  quick,  quick,  save,  save  yourself  ! — Fare- 
well! Emiiont! 


180  HISTORICAL  AND  BIOGRAPHICAL. 

EGM. — What  do  you  want? 

OR. — (Seizing  his  hand.)  Be  persuaded!  Come  with 
me! 

EGM. — What?  Tears,  my  friend? 

OR. — To  deplore  a  lost  one,  is  also  manful. 

EGM. — You  think  I  am  lost? 

OR. — You  ARE  lost.  Think  of  it!  Only  a  short  time 
is  left  to  you;  Farewell! 

Act  III.    Scene:  Residence  of  the  Duke  of  Alva.    Count  Egmont,  Duke 
of  Alva.  Ferdinand,  his  Son. 

EGM. — I  come  to  learn  the  orders  of  the  king;  to 
hear  what  service  he  demands  from  our  loyalty  which 
is  devoted  to  him  for  ever. 

A. — In  the  first  place,  he  wishes  to  hear  your  counsel. 

EGM. — Upon  what  matter?  Does  also  Orange  come? 
I  supposed  to  find  him  here. 

A. — I  am  sorry  that,  in  this  important  hour,  he  is 
missing.  The  king  desires  your  counsel,  your  opinion, 
how  to  appease  these  states.  Nay,  he  hopes,  you  will 
vigorously  co-operate  in  quelling  these  disturbances,  and 
to  establish  entire  and  lasting  order  in  these  provinces. 

EGM. — You  can  better  know  than  I  that  all  things 
are  already  enough  appeased,  nay,  that  they  were  even 
more  so  before  the  arrival  of  the  new  soldiers  again  ex- 
cited fear  and  care  in  the  minds. 

A. — You  seem  to  intimate  that  it  would  have  been 
the  best  advice  that  the  king  had  not  put  me  at  all  in 
the  alternative  to  interrogate  you. 

EGM. — Pardon,  Sir,  it  is  not  my  business  to  decide  if 
the  king  has  done  well  to  send  the  army,  or  if  not  the 
power  of  his  majestic  presence  alone  would  have  ef- 
fected more.  The  army  is  here,  the  king  is  not.  Mean- 
while, a  rebellious  people  has  returned  to  its  duty. 

A. — I  do  not  deny,  that  the  tumult  is  settled,   and 


HISTOEICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  181 


every  one  seems  to  be  reduced  to  the  limits,  of  obedience, 
But  does  it  not  depend  from  the  pleasure  of  every  one 
to  quit  the  Knits?  Who  will  hinder  the  people  from 
again  breaking  loose?  Where  is  the  power  to  retain 
them?  Who  does  warrant  us  that  they  will  continue  to 
be  faithful  and  submissive?  Their  good  will  is  all  we 
have. 

EGM.— Is  not  the  good  will  of  a  people  the  surest,  the 
nobles:  pledge?  By  God!  When  may  a  king  think  his 
person  to  be  safer,  both  against  domestic  and  foreign 
•enemies  than  when  all  stand  for  one,  and  one  for  all? 

A. — Must  we  believe  that  such  is  the  case  here  at 
present? 

EGM. — Let  the  king  proclaim  a  general  pardon,  and 
tranqudize  the  minds,  and  it  will  soon  be  seen  how 
speedily  loyalty  and  affection,  with  confidence,  will  re- 
turn. 

A — And  whoever  disgraced 'the  majesty  of  the  king, 
and  the  sanctuary  of  the  religion,  should  be  permitted 
to  walk  abroad  free  and  safe,  living  examples  that 
monstrous  crimes  from  punishment  are  exempt? 

EGM. — And  ought  not  a  crime  of  frenzy  and  of  intox- 
ication to  be  excused  rather  than  horribly  chastised? 
Are  they  not  praised  by  the  world  and  by  posterity, 
who  could  pardon,  pity,  despise  an  offense  against  their 
dignity?  Are  they  not,  on  that  account,  likened  to 
God,  who  is  far  too  exalted  to  be  reached  by  every 
blasphemy? 

A. — And  therefore  should  the  king  contend  for  the 
honor  of  God  and  of  religion — we  for  the  authority  of 
ilthe  king. 

EGM, — Think  you  that  we  will  reach  them  all?  Do 
we  not  daily  hear  that  fear  drives  them  to  and  fro,  out 
from  the  country?  The  richest  will  save  their  property, 


182  HISTORICAL   AND  BIOGRAPHIC  ALr 


themselves,  their  children  and  friends,  to  other  coun- 
tries; the  poor  will  convey  their  useful  hands  to  their 
neighbor. 

A. — They  will,  it  they  cannot  be  prevented.  For 
that  reason,  the  king  demands  counsel  and  assistance 
from  every  prince,  earnest  from  every  stadt-holder,  not 
only  report  of  that  what  is,  what  could  happen,  if  we 
let  things  pass  as  they  pass.  To  strike  a  blow,  like  the 
clown  in  the  carnival  play'  at  random,  so  as  to  make 
a  noise,  and  appear,  to  do  something,  when,  in  fact,  one 
would  fain  do  nothing:  does  such  a  conduct  not  render 
us  suspicious  that  we  contemplate  with  pleasure  the  re- 
bellion which  we  would  not  stir  up,  but  encourage? 

EGM. — (about  to  break  forth,  restrains  himself,  and 
after  a  short  pause  calmly  says.) — Not  every  intention 
is  evident,  and  many  a  man's  intention  can  be  miscon- 
strued. It  must  also,  from  all  sides,  be  heard  that  the 
king  not  so  much  intends  to  govern  the  provinces  ac- 
cording to  uniform  and  unbiased  laws,  to  secure  the 
majesty  of  religion,  and  to  give  to  his  people  universal 
peace  as  to  subjugate  them  absolutely,  to  deprive  them  of 
their  ancient  rights,  to  seize  their  possessions,  to  curtail 
the  fine  rights  of  the  nobles;  for  the  sake  of  which  alone 
they  like  to  serve  him,  to  devote  him  even  life  and 
limb.  Religion,  it  is  said,  is  only  a  splendid  device 
behind  which  every  cunning  design  may  be  contrived 
with  the  greater  ease.  The  prostrate  crowds  adore  the 
sacred  symbols  given  out  there,  while  behind  lurches  the 
fowler  ready  to  entrap  them. 

A. — This  must  I  hear  from  you? 

EGM. — I  speak  not  my  sentiments ;  I  but 
repeat  what  is  uttered  and  loudly  divulged  now 
here  and  now  there,  by  great  and  by  humble,  by  wise 
men  and  fools.  The  Netherlands  fear  a  double  yoke, 


HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  183 


and  who  warrants  them  their  liberty? 

A. — Liberty?  A  tine  word,  when  it  is  well  under- 
stood. What  kind  of  liberty  do  they  want?  What  is 
the  liberty  of  the  freest  man?  To  do  right!  And  the 
king  will  not  prevent  them  from  doing  right.  No,  no, 
they  do  not  believe  to  be  free,  when  they  cannot  hurt 
themselves  and  others.  Would  it  not  be  better  to  ab- 
dicate at  oiice  than  to  govern  such  a  people?  Much  bet- 
ter is  it  to  restrain  them  in  order  that  they  can  be  man- 
aged and  guided,  like  children,  for  their  good.  Believe 
me,  a  people  does  not  grow  old, nor  wise;  a  people  always 
remains  childish. 

EGM,  How  seldom  a  king  becomes  sensible!  And 
should  many  not  rather  confide  themselves  to  the  many 
than  to  the  one,  and  not  even  to  the  one,  but  to  the  few 
servants  of  the  one,  men  who  have  grown  old  under  the 
eyes  of  their  master.  To  grow  wise,  it  seems  is  the 
privilege  of  these  ones. 

A. — Perhaps  for  the  very  reason  that  they  are  not  left 
to  themselves. 

EGM. — And  therefore  they  would  fain  leave  no  one 
to  his  own  guidance.  Let  them  do  what  they  please; 
I  have  replied  to  your  question,  and  repeat:  it  will  not 
do.  It  cannot  do.  I  know  my  count  r  men.  They 
are  men  worthy  to  tread  God's  earth;  each  complete  in 
himself,  a  little  king,  steadfast,  active,  capable,  loyal, 
attached  to  ancient  customs.  It  is  difficult  to  win  their 
confidence,  but  it  is  easy  to  retain  it.  Firm  and  inflexi- 
ble. They  can  be  pressed,  but  not  oppressed, 

A.  (Who  meanwhile  was  several  times  looking 
around).  Would  you  venture  to  repeat  what  you  have 
uttered,  in  the  king's  presence? 

EGM.  It  were  the  worse  it  his  presence  restrained 
me  by  fear.  The  better  for  him  and  for  his  people  if 


184  HISTORICAL  AND  BIOGRAPHICAL. 


he  encouraged  me,  if  he  inspired  me  with  confidence  to 
tell  him  still  much  more. 

A      What  is  profitable,  I  can  listen  to  as  well  as  he 

EGM.  I  would  say  to  him:  The  shepherd  can  easily 
drive  before  him  a  flock  of  sheep;  the  ox  draws  th? 
plough  without  resistance;  but  if  you  would  ride  the 
noble  steed,  you  must  learn  his  thoughts,  you  must  re- 
quire nothing  imprudent,  nor  imprudently  from  him. 
Therefore,  the  burgher  wishes  to  retain  his  ancient  con- 
stitution; to  be  governed  by  his  countrymen,  because 
he  knows  how  he  is  ruled,  because  he  can  rely  upon 
their  disinterestedness  and  sympathy  with  his  fate. 

A.  And  ought  not  the  Kegent  have  the  power  to 
change  these  ancient  usages?  Should  not  this  be  his 
fairest  privilege?  What  is  permanent  in  this  world? 

EGM.  And  these  arbitrary  changes,  these  unlimited 
encroachments  of  the  supreme  power,  are  they  not  fore- 
runners that  one  will  do  what  thousands  ought  not  to 
do?  He  would  alone  be  free  that  he  may  have  it  in  his 
power  to  satisfy  his  every  wish,  to  accomplish  his  every 
thought.  And  though  we  should  entirely  confide  in 
him  as  a  good  and  wise  king,  will  he  answer  to  us  for 
his  successors?  That  none  of  them  shall  rule  without 
consideration,  without  forbearance?  Who  saves  us, 
then,  against  absolute  caprice,  if  he  sends  us  his  ser- 
vants, his  minions,  who,  without  knowledge  of  the  coun- 
try and  its  wants  should  govern  according  to  their 
pleasure,  meet  with  no  opposition,  and  knowing  them- 
selves free  from  all  responsibility? 

A.  (Who,  meanwhile,  had  been  again  looking 
around).  There  is  nothing  more  natural  than  that  a 
king  intends  to  rule  by  himself  and  that  he  best 
charges  those  with  his  orders  who  best  understand  him, 


HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  185 

desire  to  understand  him,  who  unconditionally  execute 
his  will. 

E;JAI. — And  just  as  natural  is  it  that  the  burgher 
like?  to  be  governed  by  one  who  is  born  and  educated 
with  him,  whose  notions  of  right  and  wrong  are  the 
same  as  his  own,  and  whom  he  can  regard  a-  his 
brother. 

A. — And  yet  the  noble  has  shared  rather  unequally 
with  these  brethren  of  his. 

EiiM. — That  took  place  centuries  ago,  and  is  now  tol- 
erated without  envy;  but  should  ne\v  me:i  needlessly 
be  sent  to  enrich  themselves  a  second  time,  at  the  cost 
of  the  nation;  should  the  people  see  themselves  exposed 
to  a  rough,  bold,  unlimited  rapacity,  it  would  excit?  a 
ferment  that  would  not  soon  be  put  down 

A. — You  tell  me  words  to  which  I  should  not  listen; 
I,  too,  am  a  foreigner. 

EIIM. — That  I  speak  them  to  you,  proves  to  you  that 
I  do  not  mean  you. 

A. — Be  that  as  it  may,  I  would  rather  not  hear  them 
from  you.  The  king  sent  me  here  in  the  hope  that  I 
should  receive  the  aid  of  the  nobles.  The  king's  inten- 
tion is  to  sacrifice  the  noxious  citizens,  that  the  rest 
may  find  repose.  That  is  hi:  resolution;  I  am  ordered 
to  promulgate  it  t<^  the  nobles;  and,  in  his  name,  I  de- 
mand counsel,  how,  not  what  it  i<  to  be  done;  for  on 
that  he  has  resolved. 

EGM. — Your  words,  alas,  justify  the  fears  of  the  peo- 
ple, the  universal  fe  ir.  He  was  then  resolved  as  n  > 
sovereign  ought  to  resolve.  He  will  crush,  oppress,  de- 
stroy the  strength  of  his  people,  their  spirit,  their  self- 
respect,  in  order  to  govern  them  easily.  He  will  cor- 
rupt the  inmost  core  of  their  individuality;  certainly 
with  the  intention  to  make  them  Imppuir.  He  will  an- 


186  HISTORICAL    AND  BIOGRAPHICAL, 

nihilate  them  that  they  become  something,  something; 
else.  Oh!  if  his  intention  be  good,  it  is  misguided!  Not 
the  King  is  opposed;  the  King  is  only  resisted  who 
takes  the  first  unfortunate  steps  to  walk  the  wrong 
way. 

A. — Such  being  your  sentiments,  it  seems  to  |be  a 
vain  attempt  for  us  to  agree.  You  think  poorly  of  the 
King  and  meanly  of  his  counsellors,  if  you  doubt  that 
every  thing  has  not  already  been  thought  of,  examined 
and  weighed.  I  have  no  order  to  examine  again  every 
pro  and  con.  What  I  demand,  is  obedience  from  the 
people  and  counsel  and  support  from  you,  their  lead- 
ers and  princes,  as  pledges  of  this  unconditional  duty, 

EGM.  Demand  our  heads,  and  it  is  at  once  done. 
To  a  noble  soul  it  can  be  indifferent  whether  he  stoop 
his  neck  to  such  a  yoke  or  to  the  hangman's  axe.  I 
have  spoken  so  much  to  little  purpose;  I  have  shaken 
the  air,  but  gained  nothing  else. 

[Enter  Ferdinand.] 

FER. — Pardon  that  I  interrupt  your  conversation  . 
Here  is  a  letter  the  bearer  of  which  urgently  demands 
an  answer. 

A. — Allow  me  to  see  what  it  contains.    (Steps  aside.) 

FER. — (To  Egmont),  'tis  a  fine  horse  that  your  peo- 
ple have  brought  to  carry  you  away. 

EGM. — It  is  not  the  worst  I  have  seen.  I  have  had 
it  some  time,  I  think  of  parting  with  it.  If  it  pleases 
you,  we  shall  perhaps  agree  as  to  the  price. 

FER. — Well,  we  will  see  about  it.  (Alva  motions  to 
his  son,  who  retires  to  the  back-ground.) 

EGM. — Farewell!  Permit  me  to  retire;  for,  by 
Heaven,  I  know  not  what  more  I  can  say. 

A.— Fortunately  chance  prevented  you  to  betray 
your  sentiments  still  farther.  Incautiously  you  lay 


iH^rOKICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  187 

bare  the  recesses  of  your    heart,    and    accuse  yourself 
more  fatally  than  an  odious  adversary  could  do. 

EGM. — This  reproach  does  not  disturb  me;  I  know 
myself  sufficiently,  and  know  how  I  belong  to  the  king, 
much  more  than  many  who  in  his  service  serve  them- 
selves. I  regret  to  withdraw  from  this  quarrel  without 
seeing  it  composed;  and  only  desire  that  the  service  of 
our  master,  and  the  welfare  of  our  country  may  soon 
unite  us.  Another  conference,  the  presence  of  the  other 
princes  who  to-day  are  absent  will  perhaps,  in  a  happier 
moment,  accomplish  what  to-day  seems  to  be  impossible. 
In  this  hope  I  take  my  leave. 

A. — (Who  at  the  same  time  makes  a  sign  to  his  son 
Ferdinand).  Hold  Egmont!  Your  sword!  (The  cen- 
tre door  opens;  the  gallery  is  seen  occupied  with  guards 
who  remain  motionless.) 

EGM. — (Who  astonished  kept  for  a  while  silence). 
This  was  the  intention?  For  this  thou  hast  summoned 
me?  (Grasping  his  sword  as  if  to  defend  himself.) 
Am  I  then  weaponless? 

A. — The  king  commands,  thou  art  my  prisoner  (At 
the  same  time  guards  enter  from  both  sides.) 

EGM. — (After  a  pause.)  The  king?  Orange!  Or- 
ange! (After  a  pause,  yielding  his  sword.)  Take  it! 
It  has  far  oftener  defended  the  cause  of  the  king  than 
protected  this  breast.  (Pie  retires  by  the  centre  door; 
the  guards  who  are  in  the  room  follow  him;  as  also 
Alva's  son;  Alva  remains  standing  while  the  curtain 
fells.) 

At    the    same  time   Count  Horn    WEUS  taken  prisoner,    by  »»nletx  of  Alva 


188  HISTORICAL  AND  BIOGRAPHICAL. 

TRIAL  AND  EXECUTION  OF    THE   COUNTS 
EGMONT  AND  HORN.     FROM  FR.  SCHIL- 
LER, SECESSION    OF    THE    NETHER- 
LANDS FROM   THE    SPANISH    GOV- 
ERNMENT.    FIRST  SUPPLEMENT. 

The  two  counts  were  a  few  weeks  after  their  arrest, 
conveyed  to  Ghent,  under  an  escort  of  three  thousand 
Spanish  soldiers,  where  they  were  confined  in  the  cida- 
tel  for  more  than  eight  months.  Their  trial  com- 
menced in  due  form  before  the  Council  of  Twelve,  and 
the  indictment  against  Egmont  consisted  of  ninety 
counts;  that  against  Horn  of  sixty.  Every  innocent 
action,  every  omission  of  duty  was  interpreted  accord- 
ing to  the  principle  which  has  been  laid  down  in  the 
opening  of  the  indictment  "that  the  two  counts,  in  con- 
junction with  the  Prince  of  Orange,  had  endeavored  to 
overthrow  the  royal  authority  in  the  Netherlands,  and 
to  usurp  the  government  of  the  country."  The  expul- 
sion of  Granvella,  the  embassy  of  Egmont  to  Madrid, 
the  confederacy  of  the  Gueux,  the  concessions  which 
they  made  to  the  Protestants  in  their  provinces — all 
must  have  a  connexion  with,  and  a  reference  to  that  de- 
sign. Thus  importance  was  attached  to  the  most  in- 
significant occurence,  and  one  action  made  to  darken  and 
discolour  another.  By  taking  care  to  treat  each  of  the 
charges  as  in  itself  a  treasonable  offence,Ht  was  the  easier 
to  justify  a  sentence  of  high  treason  by  the  whole. 

The  indictment  was  sent  to  the  prisoners,  with  the  in- 
formation to  reply  to  it  within  five  days.  After  doing  so 
they  were  allowed  to  employ  defenders  and  attorneys, 
to  whom  free  access  was  permitted.  But  as  they  were 
accused  of  high  treason,  none  of  their  friends  were  per- 
mitted to  see  them. 


HISTOEICAL   AND   BIOGRAPHICAL.  189 


Their  first  step  was  to  protest  against  the  tribunal 
which  was  to  try  them,  since  they  as  knights  of  the 
Golden  Fleece  could  only  be  judged  by  the  king  him- 
self, the  Grand  Master  of  this  Order.  But  this  de- 
murrer was  overruled,  and  they  were  required  to  pro- 
duce their  witnesses,  in  default  of  which  the  tribunal 
would  proceed  against  them  in  eontumaciam.  Egmont 
had  satisfactorily  answered  to  eighty-two  counts;  the 
count  Horn,  too,  refuted  the  charges  against  him,  article 
by  article. 

The  accusation  and  the  defence  are  still  extant; 
every  impartial  tribunal  would  have  them  acquitted 
•on  that  defense.  The  Fiscal  attorney  pressed  for 
the  presentation  of  the  evidence,  and  the 
duke  of  Alve  issued  repeated  commands  to  use  dis- 
patch. They  delayed  from  week  to  week,  while  they 
renewed  their  protests  against  the  illegality  of  the  court. 
Finally,  the  duke  assigned  them  nine  days  more  to  pro- 
duce their  proofs;  as  they  had  let  also  these  pass  away, 
they  wire  declared  guilty,  and  as  having  forfeited  all 
right  of  defence. 

Du  ring  the  progress  of  the  trial,  the  relation*  and 
friends  of  the  two  cou  its  were  not  idle.  Egmont's 
vife,  by  birth  a  dutchess  of  Bavaria,  addressed  petitions 
to  the  princes  of  the  German  empire,  to  the  Emperor, 
and  to  the  king  of  Spain:  the  Countess  Horn,  mother 
of  the  prisoner,  who  was  connected  by  the  ties  of  friend- 

*ship  or  of  the  blood  with  the  principalroyal  families  of 
Germany,  did  the  same.  All  protested  loudly  against 
this  illegal  proceeding,  and  would,  against  it,  vindicate 
the  liberty  of  the  German  empire,  on  which  Horn,  as  a 
count  of  the  empire,  laid  special  claim,  moreover  on  the 
liberty  of  the  Netherlands  and  the  privileges  of  the 
Golden  Fleece.  The  countess  of  Egmont  obtained  the 


I 


H>0  HISTORICAL    AKD  BIOGRAPHICAL, 


intercession  of  nearly  all  courts  in  behalf  of  her  hus~ 
band;  the  king  of  Spain  and  his  vicegerent  were  be- 
sieged by  intercessions  which  were  passed  from  one  to- 
another,  and  by  both  ridiculed.  The  countess  Horn 
collected  certificates  from  all  knights  of  the  Fleece  in 
Spain,  Germany,  Italy;  in  order  to  prove  hereby  the 
privileges  of  the  Order;  Alve  rejected  them  declaring 
that  they  had  no  force  in  the  present  case.  "The  crimes 
of  which  the  counts  are  accused  were  committed  in  the 
affairs  of  the  Netherlands,  and  he,  the  duke,  was  ap- 
pointed by  the  king  sole  judge  of  all  masters  of  these 
provinces." 

Four  months  had  been  allowed  to  the  attorney  Fis- 
cal to  draw  up  his  indictment,  and  five  were  given  to 
the  counts  to  prepare  for  their  defense.  But  instead  to 
procure  their  evidence,  they  preferred  to  lose  their  time 
and  trouble  by  protesting  against  their  judges  which 
has  still  of  less  profit  to  them.  After  the  last  term  had 
expired,  the  first  of  June  1568,  the  Council  of  Twelve 
declared  them  guilty,  and  on  the  fourth  of  the  same 
month  followed  the  sentence  of  death  against  them. 

The  execution  of  twenty-five  noble  Netherlander 
who  were  beheaded,  in  three  succeeding  days,  in  the 
market  place  of  Brussels,  was  the  terrible  prelude  to 
the  fate  of  the  two  counts.  The  secretary  of  Egmont 
was  one  of  the  unfortunates  who  thus  was  recompensed 
for  his  fidelity  to  his  master  which  he  steadfastly  main- 
tained upon  the  rack,  and  for  his  zeal  in  the  service  of 
the  king  which  he  proved  against  the  iconoclasts. 
The  others  had  either  been  taken  prisoners  with  arms 
in  the  hands  in  the  revolt  of  the  Gueux,  or  arrested  and 
condemned  as  traitors,  for  having  taken  part  in  the  pe- 
tition of  the  nobles. 

The  duke  had  reason  to  hasten  the  execution  of  the 


HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  191 

sentence.  The  brothers  of  the  prince  of  Orange  had 
given  a  successful  battle  to  the  count  of  Aremberg,  ad- 
vanced against  Greeningen,  and  laid  siege  to  it.  The 
victory  had  raised  the  courage  of  his  party,  and  his 
brother  was  ck>3e  at  hand  with  an  army  to  support  him. 
These  circumstances  made  the  presence  of  Alva  neces- 
sary in  these  distant  provinces,  but  he  could  not  ven- 
ture to  leave  Brussels  before  the  fate  of  two  such  im- 
portant prisoners  was  decided.  The  whole  nation 
loved  them  with  enthusiasm  which  was  much  increased 
by  their  unhappy  fate.  Even  the  strict  Papists 
grudged  to  the  duke  the  triumph  to  suppress  two  such 
important  men.  The  slightest  advantage  of  the  arms 
of  the  insurgents,  or  even  the  rumor  of  it  was  sufficient 
to  cause  a  revolution  in  Brussels  by  which  both  counts 
would  be  set  at  liberty.  Moreover  the  petitions  and 
intercessions  which  came  to  him  as  well  as  to  the  king 
increased  daily;  nay,  emperor  Maximilian  II.  caused 
the  countess  of  Egmont  to  be  assured  "that  she  had 
nothing  to  fear  for  the  life  of  her  husband."  These 
considerations  moved  the  duke  not  to  delay  the  execu- 
tion of  the  sentence  as  soon  as  it  was  passed. 

The  next  day  after  the  sentence  was  pronoun  ed  the 
two  counts  were  brought  under  an  escort  of  three  thou- 
sand Spaniards  to  Brussels,  the  Council  of  Twelve  as- 
sembled, and  the  two  sentences  were  in  the  presence  ,of 
the  duke,  by  the  secretary  publicly  read.  The  counts 
were  declared  guilty  of  treason,  for  having  favored  and 
promoted  the  abominable  organization  of  the  Prince  of 
Orange,  protected  the  confederate  nobles,  and,  in  th$ 
government  of  their  provinces  and  in  other  employ- 
ments neglectfully  served  the  king  and  the  Church. 
Both  should  be  publicly  beheaded,  their  heads  fixed 
upon  pikes,  and  not  taken  down  without  the  duke's  ex- 


192  HISTORICAL  AND  BIOGRAPHICAL. 

press  command.  All  their  possessions,  fiefs  and  rights 
ought  to  escheat  to  the  royal  treasury.  The  sentence 
was  signed  only  by  the  Duke  and  the  Secretary. 

During  the  night  of  the  4th  of  Sune,  the  sentences 
were  brought  to  the  prisoners,  after  they  had  already 
gone  to  rest.  The  Duke  had  given  them  to  the  bishop 
of  Ypres  whom  he  expressly  summoned  to  Brussels  to 
prepare  the  prisoners  for  death.  When  the  bishop  re- 
ceived this  commission  he  threw  himself  at  the  feet  of 
the  duke,  and  supplicated  him  with  tears  in  his  eyes  for 
mercy — at  least  for  respite  for  the  prisoners;  but  he  was 
answered  in  a  rough  and  angry  voice  that  he  had  been 
sent  for,  not  to  oppose  the  sentence,  but  to  alleviate  it 
by  his  consolations. 

Egmont  was  the  first  to  whom  he  showed  the  sentence 
of  death.  "'That  is,  indeed,  a  severe  sentence!''  exclaim- 
ed the  count  turning  pale,  and  with  a  shocked  voice;  I 
did  not  think  that  I  had  offended  his  majesty  so  deeply 
as  to  deserve  such  treatment.  But  if  it  must  be  so,  I 
submit  to  this  fate  with  resignation.  May  this  death 
atone  for  my  sins,  and  be  of  no  damage  neither  to  my 
wife  nor  children.  I  believe  that  I  can  at  least  ex- 
pect this  for  my  past  services."  He  then  urged  the 
bishop  to  tell  him  seriously  and  sincerely  if  there  was 
no  hope  of  pardon. — -Being  answered  in  the  negativo 
he  confessed,  and  received  the  sacrament  from  the  priest. 
The  thoughts  of  his  family  interrupted  him;  he  wrote 
two  letters,  one  to  his  wife  and  the  other  to  the  king; 
in  the  latter  was  this  passage:  "Far  as  I  have  ever  been 
from  attempting  against  the  person  or  service  of  your 
majesty,  or  against  the  only  true,  old  and  Catholic  re- 
ligion, I  yet  submit  to  the  fate  which  it  has  pleased 
God  to  ordain  I  should  suffer  with  patience.  In  con- 
sideration of  my  past  services,  I  beseech  your  majesty 


HISTORICAL  AND  BIOGRAPHICAL*  Uio 

io  show  mercy  to  my  unhuppy  wife  and  poor  children 
sand  servants."  The  family  of  the  coaiit  was  subsequent- 
ly reinstated  in  all  her  possessions,  fiefs  and  rights 
which,  by  virtue  of  tho  sentence  h  id  escheated  to  the 
royal  treasury. 

Meanwhile  a  scaffold  had  been  erected  in  the  market- 
place, before  the  city-hall  on  which  two  pobs  were  fixed 
with  iron  pikes;  and  the  whole  covered  with  black 
.cloth.  Twenty  two  companies  of  the  Spanish  garrison 
surrounded  the  scaffold,  a  precaution  which  was  by  no 
means  superfluous .  Between  ten  and  eleven  o'clock  the 
Spanish  guard  appeared  in  the  apartment  of  the  count; 
they  were  provided  with  cords  to  tie  his  hands,  accord- 
ing to  the  custom.  He  begged  to  not  do  this,  and  de- 
clared that  he  was  willing  and  ready  to  die.  Hs  him- 
self cut  off  the  collar  from  his  doublet  to  facilitate  to 
the  executioner  his  duty.  He  wore  a  night  gown  of 
red  damask,  and  over  this  a  black  Spanish  cloak,  trim- 
med with  gold  lace.  In  this  shape  he  appeared  on  the 
.scaffold.  Two  officers  and  the  bishop  of  Ypres  followed 
him  up.  The  Grand  Provost  of  the  court,  with  a  red 
wand  in  his  hand,  sat  on  horse- back  at  the  foot  of  the 
.scaffold;  the  executioner  was  concealed  beneath.  For 
a  few  moments  Egmont  passed  the  scaffold  with  noole 
dignity  and  lamented  that  it  had  not  been  permitted 
him  to  die  a  more  honorable  death  for  his  king  and  his 
country.  Up  to  the  last  moment  he  could  not  fully  per- 
suade hiniself  that  the  king  was  in  earnest  with  this 
proceeding,  and  that  it  would  be  carried  any  further 
than  to  mere  terror  of  execution.  When  the  decisive 
moment  approached  to  receive  tlu  extreme  unction, 
when  he  looked  wistfully  around,  and  still  nothing 
succeeded,  he  turned  to  the  Maitre  de  Camp,  and  asked 
him  once  more  if  there  was  no  hope  of  pardon.  The 


HISTORICAL    AND  BIOGRAPHICAL, 


officer  shrugged  his  shoulders,  looked  to  the  ground  and 
\va<  silent. 

He  then  closely  clenched  his  teeth,  threw  off*  his 
cloak  and  robe,  knelt  upon  the  cushion,  and  prepared 
himself  for  the  last  prayer.  The  bishop  presented  him 
the  crucifix  to  kiss,  and  administered  to  him,  the  extreme 
unction,  upon  which  the  count  made  him  a  sign  to 
leave  him.  He  drew  a  silk  cap  over  his  eves,  and 
awaited  the  stroke.  Over  the  corpse  and  the  streaming, 
blood  a  black  cloth  was  immediately  thrown. 

All  Brussels  which  thronged  around  the  scaffold  felt 
the  death  blow  with  the  victim.  Loud  sobs  broke  the 
frightful  silence.  The  duke  who  watched  the  execu- 
tion from  a  window  wiped  his  eyes. 

Soon  after  the  count  Horn  was  brought.  This,  of  a 
more  violent  temperament  than  his  friend,  and  irritated 
by  more  reasons  for  hatred  against  the  king,  had  re- 
ceived the  sentence  with  less  patience,  though  it 
was  against  him  less  unjust.  He  uttered  bitter  re- 
proaches against  the  king,  and  the  bishop  with  difficulty 
prevailed  upon  him  to  use  better  his  last  moments,  than 
to  curse  his  enemies.  But  finally  he  collected  himself, 
and  made  to  the  bishop  his  confession  which  he  first 
would  refuse  to  him.  He  ascended  the  scallbld  with 
the  same  companions  as  his  friend.  In  passing  by  he 
saluted  many  of  his  acquaintances.  When  he  had 
ascended,  he  cast  his  eyes  upon  the  corpse  which  lay 
under  the  cloth,  and  asked  one  of  the  bystanders  if  it 
was  the  body  of  his  friend.  When  they  had  affirmed 
him  this,  he  said  some  words  in  Spanish,  threw  his  cloak 
off,  and  knelt  upon  the  cushion.  All  shrieked  aloud  as 
he  received  the  death-blow. 

The  hands  of  both  were  fixed  upon  the  pikes  which 
were  set  up  on  the  scaffold,  where  they  remained  until 


HISTORICAL    AXD    BIOGRAPHICAL.  195 

3  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  then  they  were  taken  down, 
and  with  the  two  bodies  deposited  in  leaden  coffins. 

In  spite  of  so  many  spies  and  excutioners  who  sur- 
rounded the  scahold,  the  citizens  of  Brussels  could  not 
be  prevented  to  dip  their  handkerchiefs  in  the  blood 
winch  streamed  down,  and  to  carry  home  with  them 
these  precious  relics. 

DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  PUBLIC  MORALS  IN 

SWITZERLAND  AS  THEY  WERE  BEFORE 

AND    A1TER    THE     REFORMATION 

OF   THE    CHL'RCH.     COMPOSED 

FROM  HISTORICAL  SOURCES. 

rihe  mercenary  wars  of  bwissmen  destroyed  their 
morality  and  patriotism.  They  would  not  give  up  the 
enjoy  merits  they  got  acquainted  with  in  the  foreign 
countries,  when  they  returned  home;  their  food  seemed 
to  them  poor,  working  painful.  Beioie  the  wars,  gray 
cloth  was  almost  generally  worn,  nowr  it  was  hardly 
known;  mere  silk  became  common,  and  was  worn  in 
kitchen  and  stable,  and  by  peasants,  too.  Every  one 
^tiuggled  lor  fine  cloth,  lor  velvet,  precious  furs,  em- 
bioiderits  in  gold  and  silver,  for  jewels.  The  men 
decorated  their  hips  with  magnificent  poniards  and 
swoids,  the  points  of  the  shoes  with  golden  and  silver 
leak  5- ,  citen  also  their  toes  with  rings,  and  the  breasts  with 
innumerable  ribbons.  The  messes  must  not  only  invite 
appetite,  but  also  be  of  rare  quality;  it  was  shameful  to 
drink  Lome-bred  wines,  they  must  be  imported  from 
foicign  countries,  and  compounds;  malmsey  was  much 
liked.  Unrestrained  luxury  relaxed  every  tie  of 
shame;  its  unnatural  appeasement  also  became-  more 
general;  several  who  were  executed  for  having  com- 


196  HISTORICAL  AND  BIOGRAPHICAL. 


mitted  this  vice  confessed  to  have  learned  it   from    the 
servants  of  the  bishop  of  Veroli. 

Public  justice  was  in  a  miserable  plight.  The  multi" 
tude  of  high-way  men  demanded  often  the  most  severe 
measures.  About  the  year  1508  so  many  were  sus- 
pended on  gallows  in  Soleure  and  Freiburg  that  the 
stench  hardly  permitted  to  pass  by.  The  governments, 
forgetful  of  their  duties,  themselves  trespassed  their 
commandments.  The  parties  of  law-suits  invited  their 
judges  to  be  their  guests.  The  halls  of  the  Diets  were 
the  scenes  of  factions;  the  deputies  acted  according  to 
the  mind  of  the  different  governments  which  they  rep- 
resented. The  state-officials  were  venal,  and  abased 
themselves  by  fawning  for  the  favor  of  princes. 

The  clergy  followed  the  general  wake,  and  set  them- 
selves the  bad  example.  The  evil  grew  worse,  because, 
from  one  hand,  the  Eoman  see  used  her  right  of  in- 
vestiture without  any  regard  to  the  fitness  of  the  candi- 
dates, sending  many  unqualified,  vicious  priests  to  Swit- 
zerland, and  from  the  other  hand  favorites  possessed 
several  prebends  which  they  got  administered  by  depu- 
ties. If  there  was  a  dance  or  banquet,  the  clergymen 
first  fell  drunk.  But  their  excesses  in  luxury  were  the 
worst.  Bishops  and  magistrates  rather  allowed  them 
to  have  concubines  than  wives.  Publicly,  the  parson 
kept  a  concubine,  had  children  with  her,  and  asked  the 
Council  to  execute  the  arrangements  he  had  ::aade  in 
order  to  save  the  children  and  their  mother  from  want. 
The  decay  of  the  monastic  discipline,  and  the  mischief 
which  was  done  by  the  Indulgences,  are  notorious. 

This  was  the  condition  of  public  morals,  in  Switzer- 
land, before  the  Reformation.  For  the  rest,  it  is  scarce 
necessary  to  remark  and  History  confirms  it  that  they 


HISTOEICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  197 


were,  at  the  same  time,  at  least  even  as  much  corrupted 
in  other  countries  of  Europe. 

After  the  Reformation,  the  morals  of  Switzerland 
were  in  the  Reformed  and  Catholic  Cantons  quite  differ- 
ent. 

In  the  Reformed  ones  the  old  customs  were  combatted. 
The  law,  the  courts,  the  pulpit  aided  each  other 
against  the  corrupt  practices.  According  to  the  law, 
he  lost  his  citizenship  who  tried  to  re-establish 
the  mercenary  service  by  any  intrigues.  The 
lewd  women  were  expelled  from  the  streets  where 
they  lived  till  then.  Councils  of  presbyters,  composed 
of  laymen  and  ministers,  guarded  in  all  parishes,  the 
observance  of  the  moral  mandates,  principally  the 
sanctity,  and  the  peace  of  the  families.  A  pure  life  was 
from  the  pulpit  inculcated.  The  old  customs,  frugality, 
regular  occupation,  simple  enjoyments,  rigid  piety,  by 
degrees,  returned.  The  Church  had,  in  all  Reformed 
cities  intrusted  herself  to  the  state,  and  the  state 
yielded  to  the  dicipline  of  the  Church.  All  kinds  of 
gambling,  and  luxury  in  dress  were  forbidden.  The 
members  of  the  government  and  the  ministers  set,  them- 
selves, the  example  of  the  observance  of  the  edicts. 
The  time  which  formally  was  squandered  in  the  taverns, 
and  the  strength  which  was  exhausted  iu  mercenary 
service,  were  now  employed  for  agriculture  and  in- 
dustry. After  a  few  years,  the  Evangelical  Cantons 
excelled,  by  activity  and  wealth,  those  who  had  con- 
served the  old  creed.  This  elevation  would  have  been 
still  higher,  if  it  had  not  met  an  opposite  movement. 
The  freemen  of  the  cities,  since  the  war*  of  Burgund, 
had  contracted  the  use  to  form  castes  and  to  separate  from 
the  inhabitants  of  the  country.  The  acquisition  of 
citizenship  became,  from  year  to  year,  more  expensive. 


198  HISTORICAL    AND  BIOGRAPHICAL, 


The  corruptions  of  the  crafts-men  checked,  within  the 
town-walls,  the  thriving  of  any  trade  which,  could 
damage  them.  The  citizens  joined  to  exclude  every 
stranger  fivm  sharing  their  priviledges,  and  fixed, 
among  themselves,  the  wages  of  the  day -laborer  and 
workman. 

Quite  different  was  the  aspect  which  the  Catholic 
Cantons  exhibited.  It  was  still  foreign  military  service 
which  principally  occupied  them,  and  now  it  did  so 
even  more  than  before  the  Reformation,  because  the 
territory  of  levy  by  it  was  limited.  The  warlike  youth 
hastened  to  the  flag  of  the  king  of  France.  Neither 
landlords,  nor  craftsmen  could  restrain  their  retainers. 
Those  who  returned  from  war  were  heard  saying: 
"Why  ought  we  to  trouble  ourselves  to  plough  the 
mountains?  Is  it  not  better  to  pass,  amidst  trumpets 
and  drums,  a  life  full  of  glory  aud  adventures?"  The 
Catholic  Switzerland  was  won,  by  such  tempting  words, 
easier  than  ever  for  dubious  wars.  The  restless  young 
men  enlisted  every  year  in  the  service  of  the  king  of 
France,  and  large  sums  were  every  year,  in  the  Can- 
tons, distributed  in  order  to  keep  them  ready.  The 
Canton  Schwyz  did  not  like  to  be  reproached  by  Zuric  h 
that  it  was  zealous  in  faith,  but  careless  for  good  morals. 
This  Canton  issued,  since  the  Reformation,  many  or- 
dinances against  pride,  blasphemy,  drunkenness  and 
luxury.  But  all  this  godly  life  was  interrupted  by  the 
voice  of  the  officers  whose  levies  changed  the  peaceful 
valleys  into  markets.  The  taverns  were  filled;  and  the 
echo  did  nothing  resound  but  soldiers'  songs  and  im- 
patient cries.  Scuffles  usually  happened  when,  in 
spring,  wild  bands  of  mercenaries,  passed  through  the 
Reformed  Cantons,  with  rosaries  attached  to  the  necks, 
hands,  and  even  to  the  breeches.  Bern  permitted  only 


HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  199 

small  bands  to  pass  through,  Zurich  none  at  all.  But 
by  ?_11  ordinances,  these  two  cities  could  not  prevent 
great  many  of  their  own  people  to  join  the  hirelings. 
They  set  out  from  all  Cantons,  and  if  there  was  not  a 
good  harvest,  the  market  was  overstocked,  and  the  price 
01  the  recruits  declined.  The  levies  were,  es- 
pecially, easy  in  the  countries  which  were  sub- 
jected to  the  dominion  of  the  Cantons,  most 
of  whom  had  again  deserted  the  Keformed 
creed.  Suffice  it  to  give  one  example  from  the 
Canton  of  Thurgau  The  peasant  threw  away  the  shovel , 
and  followed  the  enrolling  officers  to  war.  When  the 
campaign  was  finished,  idleness,  gambling  and  usury 
gained  ground,  and  it  passed  soon  the  strength  of  toe 
hangman  to  throw  -ell  the  suicides  into  the  river.  This 
was  the  life  of  the  Confederate  Swiss-men  some  time 
after  the  Reformation. 

CHARLES  XII,  KING  OF  SWEDEN,  DEFENDS 

HIMSELF   WITH   FOURTY  DOMESTICS 

AGAINST  A  WHOLE  ARMY. 

(Translated  from  Voltaire's  "Histoire  de  Charles  XII") 

Charles  XII.,  king  of  Sweden,  waged  war  against 
Peter  I.  emperor  of  Russia.  After  having  lost  the 
battle  at  Pultawa,  he  flew  into  Turkey  where  he  remained 
several  years  inviting  the  Turks  to  make  war  against 
Peter;  finally  the  Sultan  ordered  him  to  leave  the  country. 
Charles  refused  to  do  so,  and  fortified  his  residence  in 
Bender.  The  Sultan  would  force  him  to  depart;  the 
king  defended  himself  with  forty  domestics  against  the 
whole  army  of  the  Sultan.  Voltaire  relates  this  remark- 
able event  in  his  history  of  Charles  XII,  in  the  follow- 
ing way: 


200  HISTORICAL  AND  BIOGRAPHICAL. 

Charles  ordered  his  three  hundred  Swedes  to  raise 
regular  intrenchments:  at  which  he  worked  himself; 
his  chancellor,  his  treasurer,  his  secretaries,  his  body 
servants,  all  his  domestics  set  to  work.  Some  barricad- 
ed the  windows,  and  others  fastened  beams  behind  the 
doors,  in  the  form  of  buttresses.  After  the  house  was 
sufficiently  barricaded,  and  the  king  had  rode  around 
his  pretended  fortifications,  he  sat  down  to  play  chess, 
with  as  much  tranquillity  as  if  everything  had  been  per- 
fectly safe  and  secure.  The  pasha  of  Bender,  and  the 
khan  of  the  Tartars  th  whom  the  sultan  had  given 
commission  to  execute  his  orders  dispatched  an  express 
to  the  sultan,  to  receive  his  last  orders.  They  arrived: 
the  Grand'S  ignior  commanded  toput  to  the  sword  all 
the  Swedes  who  should  make?the  least  resistance,  and 
not  even  the  spare  the  life  of  the  king. 

It  was  not  long  before  they  beheld  the  combined 
army  of  the  Turks  and  Tartars  which  arrived  to  attack 
the  little  entrenchment  with  ten  pieces  of  cannon  and 
two  mortars.  The  horse-tails  (banners)  waved  in  the 
air;  the  clarions  sounded;  the  cries  of  ''Allah!  Allah!" 
were  heard  on  all  sides.  The  Turks  marched  up  to  the 
entrenchments;  the  Tartars  were  already  waiting  for 
them,  and  the  cannon  began  to  play.  The  Janizaries 
on  the  one  side,  and  the  Tartars  on  the  other,  in  a  mo- 
ment force  this  little  camp.  Hardly  twenty  Swedes 
drew  their  swords;  the  three  hundred  soldiers  were  sur- 
rounded, and  taken  prisoners  without  resistance.  The 
king  was  then  on  horseback,  between  his  house  and  his 
camp  with  his  generals.  He  forthwith  gallops  up  with 
them  to  that  house  in  which  he  had  placed  about  forty 
domestics  as  sentinels,  and  which  had  been  fortified  in 
the  best  manner  possible.  When  they  came  to  the 
door,  they  found  it  beset  by  the  Janizaries.  Abont  two 


HISTOEICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  201 

hundred  Turks  and  Tartars  had  entered  by  a  window, 
and  made  themselves  masters  of  all  the  apartments,  ex- 
cept a  largs  hall  where  the  king's  domestics  had  retired. 
Happily,  this  hall  was  near  the  door  at  which  the  king 
would  enter  with  his  little  troop  of  twenty  persons. 
He  had  himself  thrown  off  his  horse  with  pistol  and 
sword  in  hand,  and  his  followers  had  done  the  same. 

The  Janezaries  fell  upon  him  on  all  sides.  He 
wounded  and  killed  ail  those  who  came  near  him.  A 
Janizary  whom  he  had  wounded  clapped  his  musket  to 
the  face;  if  the  arm  of  the  Turk  had  not  made  a  move- 
ment caused  by  the  crowd  that  moved  backwards  and 
forwards  like  waves,  the  king  was  dead.  The  ball 
grazed  his  nose,  carried  off  an  end  of  his  ear,  and  then 
broke  the  arm  of  one  of  his  generals.  Tha  king 
plunged  his  sword  into  the  stomach  of  the  Janizary. 
At  the  same  time,  his  domestics,  who  were  shut  up  in 
the  large  hall,  open  the  door.  The  king  enters  like  an 
arrow,  followed  by  his  little  troop;  they  instantly  shu 
the  door  again,  and  barricade  it  with  whatever  they 
can  find.  Thus  was  Charles  XII.  shut  up  in  this  hall 
with  his  suit,  which  consisted  of  about  sixty  men. 

The  Janezaries  and  Tartars  pillaged  the  rest  of  the 
house,  and  filled  the  apartments.  "Let  us  go  a  little," 
said  the  king,  "to  drive  out  from  my  house  these  bar- 
barians;" and  putting  himself  at  the  head  of  his  men 
he  opened  himself  the  door  of  the  hall  which  led  to  his 
bed-chamber;  he  enters,  and  fires  upon  those  who  were 
.plundering.  The  Turks,  loaded  with  spoil,  a  id  terri- 
fied at  the  sudden  appearance  of  the  king,  throw  down 
their  arms,  and  leap  out  of  the  window,  or  retire  to  the 
cell  irs.  The  king,  taking  advantage  of  their  disorder, 
and  his  own  men  being  animated  by  this  success  they 
pursued  the  Turks  from  chamber  to  chamber,  kill  or 


202  HISTORICAL   AND  BIOGRAPHICAL, 


wound  those  who  don't  fly,  and  in  a  quarter  of  an  hour 
clear  the  house  of  the  enemy. 

The  Swedes  being  at  last  masters  of  the  house,  again, 
shut  and  barricaded  the  windows.  They  fire  through 
the  windows  very  close  upon  this  multitude  of  Turks, 
of  whom,  in  less  than  half  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  they 
killed  two  hundred.  The  cannon  played  upon  the 
house;  but  the  stones  being  very  soft,  the  balls  made 
only  holes,  and  demolished  nothing. 

The  Khan  of  the  Tartars  and  the  pasha,  who  would 
take  the  king  alive,  being  ashamed  to  lose  so  many 
men,  and  to  employ  a  whole  army  against  sixty  persons, 
thought  it  advisable  to  set  fire  to  the  house  in  order  to 
oblige  the  king  to  surrender.  They  ordered  to  dart 
arrows  around  which  lighted  matches  were  twisted, 
upon  the  roof  and  against  the  doors  and  windows.  The 
house  was  in  flames  in  a  moment.  The  roof,  all  on  fire, 
went  to  fall  upon  the  Swedes.  The  king  calmly  gave 
his  orders  to  extinguish  the  flames.  Finding  a  small 
barrel  full  of  liquor,  he  takes  it  up  himself,  and,  as- 
sisted by  two  Swedes,  throws  it  upon  the  floor  where 
the  fire  was  most  violent.  The  fire  redoubles  its  fury. 
The  king's  apartment  was  reduced  to  ashes.  The  great 
hall  where  the  Swedes  were  was  filled  with  a  terrible 
smoke  One  half  of  the  roof  sunk  within  the  house; 
the  other  fell  on  the  outside,  bursting  amid  the  flames. 

It  occured  to  a  soldier  of  the  body-guard  to  say  that 
the  chancery-house,  which  only  was  fifty  paces  distant, 
had  a  stone  roof,  and  was  proof  against  fire;  that  they  ought 
to  sally  forth,  occupy  the  house,  and  defend  themselves 
there.  "See  here  a  true  Swede,"  cried  the  king,  and 
made  him  colonel  upon  the  spot.  "Come  on,  my 
friends,"  said  he,  "take,  with  you,  as  much  powder  and 


HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  203 


ball  as  you  can,  and  let  us  occupy  the  chancery,  sword 
in  hand." 

The  Turks  who  meanwhile  surrounded  the  house, 
were  much  embarrassed  when  they  saw  that  the  Swedes 
did  not  come  out;  but  their  astonishment  was  still  much 
greater  when  thay  saw  the  doors  opened,  and  the  king 
and  his  followers  rushing  upon  them  like  desperate  men. 
Charles  and  his  principal  officers  were  armed  with 
swords  and  pistols.  Every  man  fired  two  pistols  at 
once,  the  moment  the  door  was  opened;  and  in  the 
twinkling  of  an  eye,  throwing  away  their  pistols,  and 
drawing  their  swords,  they  made  the  Turks  fall  back 
above  fifty  paces.  But  in  a  moment  after,  this  little 
troop  was  surrounded.  The  king  who  was  booted,  as 
usual,  entangled  h  mself  with  his  spurs,  and  fell. 
Twenty-one  Janizaries  fall  at  once  upon  him;  he  throws 
his  sword  into  the  air,  to  save  himself  the  mortification 
of  surrendering  it.  The  Turks  hear  him  to  the  pacha's 
quarters,  some  taking  hold  of  his  arms,  and  others  of 
his  legs,  as  a  patient  is  carried  whom  they  fear  to  hurt. 

As  soon  as  the  king  saw  himself  seized,  his  fury  gave 
way  at  once  to  softness  and  tranquillity;  not  a  word  of 
impatience  escaped  him.  He  regarded  the  Janizaries 
smiling,  and  they  carried  him  off,  crying  ALLAH  with 
indignation,  mixed  with  respect.  His  officers  were 
taken  at  the  same  time,  and  stripped  by  the  Turks  and 
Tartars.  It  was  on  the  twelfth  of  February,  1713,  that 
this  strange  event  happened. 


204  HISTORICAL  AND  BIOGRAPHICAL. 

HISTORY    OF   SWITZERLAND   IN    MODERN 
TIMES. 

(An  extract  from  Dr.  Dandliker's  "Geschichte  der  Schweiz.) 

1.     EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY. 
The  One,  Indivisible  Helvetic  Republic.    The  Mediation— Act. 

Political  liberty  of  the  old  Confederates,  during  the 
eighteenth  century,  almost  entirely  disappeared.  The 
different  Cantons  were  sovereign.  There  was  no  Con- 
federate army,  only  troops  of  the  several  Cantons.  The 
citizens  of  one  Canton  were  treated  like  strangers  in  an- 
other one.  It  was  easier  to  marry  a  woman  from 
France  or  Holland  than  from  another  Canton.  The 
bailiffs  in  the  dependent  dominions  obtained  their  offices 
by  bribery,  and  tried  to  recover  the  spent  money  by 
extortions  from  the  subjects;  bandits,  robbers  and  mur- 
derers were  not  punished,  if  they  had  no  money  by 
which  judges  and  hangmen  could  be  paid.  Switzerland 
was  in  two  Confederations  separeted,  a  Catholic  and  a 
Reformed  one.  Foreign  military  service  revived. 
France  and  Austria  were  both  permitted  to  levy  re- 
cruits in  Switzerland,  and  it  so  happened  that  some- 
times, in  the  same  battle,  Swissmen  were  fighting  against 
Swissmen.  The  magistrates  pretended  to  possess  their 
power  by  the  grace  of  God,  and,  therefore,  demanded 
blind  obedience  from  the  people.  Foreign  liberal  writ  - 
ings  were  forbidden.  The  censorship  in  Zurich  and 
Bern  was  as  severe  as  the  Inquisition  in  Spain.  A  book 
in  which  the  story  of  William  Tell  was  declared  to  be  a 
fable,  was  burned  by  the  hangman.  The  states  were 
governed  bv  the  police.  Their  principal  duty  was  to 
maintain  the  orthodox  faith.  The  legislators  were  also 
the  executors  of  the  laws.  The  government  of  all  Can- 
tons was  aristocratic;  political  power  was  in  the  hands 
of  a  few  families.  Tithes,  ground  rents,  socage  of  land 


IllHTOElCAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  Zl)-) 

subsisted  every  where,  in  some  places  also  bondage,  like 
in  mediaeval  times  of  feudal  servitude.  Despotism 
reigned  in  the  guilds  of  the  different  trades.  Commerce 
-tind  trades  were  the  privilege  of  the  cities. 

A  new  period  of  political  progress  opened  towards 
the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century.  English  arid  French 
free-thinkers  formed  new  theories  concerning  the  organ- 
ization of  State.  Thu  was  not  more  considered  to  be  a 
divine  creation,  but  a  work  of  human  spirit.  The  doc- 
trine of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  was  opposed  to 
the  theory  of  dominion  by  divine  grace.  The  North 
Americans  declared,  in  1776,  their  independence,  pro- 
claiming as  self-evident  truths  that  all  men  are  equal 
and  born  with  inalienable  rights;  that  gov3rnments  are 
established  to  protect  those  rights,  and  that  the  rulers 
must  be  discharged  by  the  people  if  they  do  no  so. 
This  decoration  excited,  in  Europe,  surprise  and  admi- 
ration, and  cncourag8d  the  French  nation,  in  1889,  to 
rise  against  the  long  suffered  servitude  under  contempt- 
ible kings,  and  the  National  Assembly,  the  fourth  of 
August,  proclaimed  the  human  rights,  according  to  the 
model  of  North  America. 

The  news  of  the  French  revolution  was  everywhere 
received  with  joy.  In  Switzerland,  especially,  the 
minds  of  the  younger  generation  were  seized  by  them 
with  enthusiasm.  Here  and  there  the  friends  of  the 
revolution  caused  commotions  of  the  people,  which  the 
aristocratic  governments  punished  severely.  In  Stafa, 
Zurich,  and  along  the  lake,  they  directed  a  memorial 
to  the  government  in  which  they  demanded  a  constitu- 
tion, and  liberty  of  trade;  they  also  complained  of  the 
heavy  burdens  of  the  farmers  and  that  the  sons  of  the 
country  were  excluded  from  the  higher  studies  etc.  In 


J0()  HISTORICAL    AX  I)  BIOGRAPHICAL, 

conclusion  they  said  that  the  people  ought  to  be 
sovereign,  and  all  inhabitants  of  the  Canton  enjoy 
equal  rights.  The  government  arrested  and  punished 
the  malcontents  (1795).  But  the  inhabitants  of  Stafa 
did  not  surrender.  They  investigated  and  found  old 
documents  in  which,  some  centuries  ago,  certain  privi- 
leges were  granted  by  Zurich  to  the  country.  Treasur- 
er Bodmer  was  at  the  head  of  the  investigators.  They 
resolved  to  send  delegates  to  the  government  in  order  to 
ask  if  the  privileges  were  still  valid  in  law,  Zurich  sent 
troops  which  occupied  Stafa,  and  disarmed  the  inhabi- 
tants. The  documents  must  be  surrendered,  and  Bod- 
mer was  led  to  the  gallows  where  the  hangman  brand- 
ished the  sword  over  his  head,  and  with  several  others 
sentenced  to  lifelong  imprisonment.  Heavy  fines  were 
to  the  condemned  imposed.  Two  hundred  and  fifty  per- 
sons had  to  pay  together  108,000  florins,  and  the  town 
of  Stafa  48,000.  (In  1798,  as  Switzerland  became  a 
republic,  Bodmer  was  chosen  member  and  president  of 
the  Great  Council.) 

But,  notwithstanding  of  this  brutal  correction,  the 
agitation  in  Switzerland  increased,  particularly  in  the 
western  part  where  the  majority  of  inhabitants  were  of 
French  descent.  The  people  wanted  liberty,  even  if  it 
had  to  be  obtained  by  the  assistance  of  foreigners.  As, 
in  France,  the  anniversary  of  the  capture  of  the  Bastile 
was  celebrated  (1797),  the  liberals  in  the  larger  towns 
of  Vaud  also  assembled,  and  drank  the  health  of  their 
brethren  in  France,  sang  revolutionary  airs,  and  uttered 
abusive  words  against  the  government.  Bern,  which, 
then,  ruled  in  that  country  sent  soldiers,  and  took  many 
patriots  captives,  depriving  them  of  their  property. 
The  fermentation  in  that  dominion  gre>v  more  and  more. 
Xapoleon  admonished  Bern  to  give  liberty  to  the  Yaud. 


HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  207 


The  rusty  aristocracy  would  not  agree.  Now,  fugitive 
liberals  of  that  country  presented  a  petition  to  the  Di- 
rectory of  France  in  which  they  stated  that  the  govern- 
ment of  Bern  infringed  some  ancient  rights  of  their 
country,  and  requested  its  help.  A  French  army  made 
its  appearance  in  Vaud;  then  the  Diet  resigned,  and  the 
old  Confederacy  was  dissolved.  Basel  was  the  first  city 
which  set  free  its  dependent  country.  The  castles  were 
burned,  and  the  bailiffs  expelled.  In  Vaud,  also,  the 
bailiffs  were  driven  away,  the  castle  Chillon  (the  Bas- 
tile  of  Vaud)  occupied  and  trees  of  liberty  every  where 
set  up.  The  1st  of  March,  in  1798,  the  French  army 
commenced  the  attack,  and  took  Bern  after  a  short  re- 
sistance. The  revolution  spread  like  a  running  fire 
through  the  whole  country.  Bern,  the  bulwark  of  the 
Swiss  aristocracy,  carried  the  other  parts  of  Switzerland 
away.  The  country  became  a  sacrifice  of  its  political 
petrifaction.  It  was  changed  into  a  republic,  called  the 
one  and  indivisible  Helvetic  Kepublic.  All  its  inhab- 
itants enjoyed,  according  to  the  new  Constitution, 
equal  rights.  But  the  French  army  was  covetous; 
it  levied  heavy  sums  in  the  occupied  land: 
6,000,000  to  7,000,000  of  francs  in  Bern,  822, 
000  in  Zurich,  3000,000  in  Luzern  etc.  The  whole 
contribution  amounted  from  13,000,000  to  14,000,000. 
The  Forest-Cantons,  after  a  short  and  bloody  struggle 
(from  April  to  October,  in  1798,)  were  also  compelled 
to  accept  the  new  Constitution. 

But  interior  peace  was  not  restored.  There  were  two 
political  parties,  opposing  each  other;  federalists  and 
centralists.  In  two  years  five  new  Constitutions  were 
planned,  but  the  people  rejected  all;  finally,  by  the  in- 
fluence of  Napoleon,  a  fifth  was  proposed,  and  by  the 
people,  seemingly,  accepted,  because  the  number  of 


208  HISTORICAL  AND  BIOGRAPHICAL. 


those  who  forbore  to  vote  were  added  to  that  of  the 
affirmative  voters.  The  French  troops  were  withdrawn . 
Forthwith,  resistance  broke  forth.  The  old  institutions 
were  in  several  Cantons  re-established.  The  govern- 
ment called  on  France  for  mediation:  but  in  vain; 
France  denied  it.  Zurich  and  Argau  also  revolted. 
The  government  took  to  flight,  the  followers  of  the  old 
administration  arranged,  in  several  places,  temporary 
governments.  The  Helvetic  Constitution  was  annulled, 
and  the  troops  of  the  government  beaten.  Napoleon 
ordered  the  new  government  to  disolve,  and  to  send 
deputies  to  Paris;  he  would  intermediate  in  the  public 
affairs  of  their  country.  There  they  deliberated,  under 
his  control,  on  a  new  Constitution,  which  he  revised, 
when  it  was  finished  (the  14th  of  February  in  1802.) 
It  was  called  the  Mediation  Act,  and  was  the  funda- 
mental law  of  Switzerland  till  1815.  A  greater  power 
was  by  it  granted  to  the  Cantons  than  to  the  central 
government.  One  of  its  stipulations  was  to  furnish  to 
Napoleon  an  auxiliary  corps  of  18,000  men,  and 
to  replenish  it  annually  by  new  troops.  Most  of  these 
soldiers  perished  in  his  continual  wars.  Switzerland 
was  now  a  vassal  of  France.  The  party  combats  con- 
tinued in  the  interior  of  the  land. 

CONDITION  OF  THE  COMMON  SCHOOLS  IN 
SWITZERLAND  DURING  THE  EIGHT- 
EENTH CENTURY. 

While  literature  and  sciences  during  the  eighteenth 
century  were  highly  cultivated  by  the  privileged  classes 
of  Switzerland,  the  common  schools  were  in  a  miserable 
condition.  The  common  people  were  only  so  far  in- 
structed as  the  wants  of  the  church  needed  it;  Though 


HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  209 

.there  were  common  schools  almost  everywhere,  still 
they  were  poorly  organized.  The  school  buildings,  as 
a  rule,  were  exceedingly  defective.  Frequently,  real 
.school-houses  were  wanting;  the  room  of  a  farmer,  or  of 
the  teacher,  was  used  for  keeping  school;  even  in  Zurich, 
the  residence  of  the  teacher  was  used  as  a  school -room. 
In  the  Canton  of  Solothurn,  two-thirds  of  the  schools 
were  without  school-houses.  These  school-rooms  were 
/also  used  for  common  house-work.  There  was  no 
special  class  of  teachers;  normal  schools  did  not  exist, 
before  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The 
teachers  were  mostly  discharged  soldiers  or  invalid  me- 
chanics. They  carried  on,  as  a  rule,  still  another  voca- 
tion, in  order  to  make  a  living.  This  was  necessary, 
because  their  wages  were  extremely  scanty,  amounting 
to  twenty  to  forty  francs  a  year.  This  one  was  a 
mason,  th a  a  weaver,  another  a  carpenter;  many  of 
them  filled  likewise  the  office  of  sexton.  As  late  as  in 
1777  few  teachers  in  the  country  were  able  to  read, 
write,  cipher  and  sing  correctly.  As  for  their  appoint- 
ment, much  depended  upon  recommendation.  This  one 
was  commended  by  the  parson,  the  other  by  the  bailiff, 
or  by  his  wife,  or  by  his  room.  For  the  wife  was  the 
mid-wife  of  the  village,  and  the  room  of  the  teacher 
saved  the  parish  the  rent;  the  man  was  the  barber  of 
the  village,  or  the  day-laborer  and  messenger  of  the 
parson.  One  example  to  illustrate  the  ignorance  of 
these  teachers!  A  parson,  visiting  the  school,  exam- 
ined the  copybooks  of  the  children.  He  perceived  that 
the  orthography  of  the  copies  was  antiquated.  He 
therefore,  reproached  the  teacher.  Them  the  teacher 
brought  forth  the  Bible,  from  which  he  had  taken  the 
copies  and  showed  the  parson  that  they  were  written 
there  in  the  same  way.  The  minister  explained  to  him 


IIIKTOKK'AL.  AND  BIOGRAPHICAL. 


that  this  Bible  was  an  obsolete  edition,  and  ordered 
him  to  use  a  newer  orthography.  The  teacher,  in  great 
excitement,  cried  that  he  would  like  to  see  the  man 
who  dared  to  overthrow  the  word  of  God.  As  the 
school  was  the  hand-maid  of  the  Church,  the  text- 
books were  for  the  most  part  religious  in  tone.  Bran- 
ches, like  geography,  history,  natural  history,  were  ou: 
of  the  question.  Only  reading,  writing  and  religion 
were  every  where  taught.  Arithmetic  was  taught  but 
in  few  schools.  In  the  country  of  Basel,  it  was  studied 
only  in  Liestal.  The  instruction  was  given  in  a  me- 
chanical manner;  the  scholars  were  not  led  to  under- 
stand what  they  learned,  nor  to  think  themselves.  As 
soon  as  they  could  spell  a  little,  they  must  read  the 
Bible  and  other  religious  books.  Every  scholar 
learned  and  recited  his  own  lesson,  and  studied  it  aloud. 
The  teachers  treated  the  children  in  a  rude,  barbaric 
manner;  the  stick  and  cudgel  were  frequently  handled. 
There  was  no  compulsion  about  attending  school,  and 
the  t  me  of  keeping  the  school  depended  entirely  upon 
the  pleasure  of  the  minister  or  of  the  teacher.  These 
are  the  gloomy  outlines  of  the  old  common  schools  be- 
fore 1798. 

But  the  condition  of  these  schools  was  j  not  better  in 
other  countries,  e,  g.  in  Prussia.  What  did  Frederic 
II.,  the  king-philosopher,  the  most  enlightened  mon- 
arch of  his  time,  for  the  common  schools?  Nothing. 
He  ordered  in  §20  of  the  regulations  of  country  schools: 
"In  the  country  only  the  following  text-books  are  to 
be  used:  the  New  Testament,  the  Bible  of  Berlin,  the 
analyzed  catechism  of  Luther,  the  contents  of  Biblical 
writings;  the  Christian  doctrine  in  connection,  the 
general  notion  of  God,  the  world  and  man;  the  order 
of  Salvation;  the  spelling  book  and  Reader  of  Berlin; 


HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  211 


the  little  book  for  the  instruction  of  children  in  the 
country,  containing  several  necessary  and  useful  things." 
Consequently  eight  religious,  and  only  two  secular  books 
were  used. 

2.     NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 
Reforming  Revolutions  in  Switzerland    (1830). 

Charles  X.,  king  of  France,  strived  by  all  means  to 
restore  the  dominion  of  aristocracy  and  Church.  Con- 
trary to  the  Constitution  of  France,  he  published,  the 
26th  of  July  in  1830,  three  ordinances,  by  which  the 
liberal  Chamber  of  Deputies  was  dissolved,  the  law  of 
elections  changed  from  bad  to  worse,  and  the  liberty  of 
the  press  suspended.  The  provoked  Parisians  arose  in 
insurrection,  the  27th  of  July,  vanquished  the  royal 
troops  in  a  street  combat  which  lasted  three  days, 
chased  Charles  X,  and  enforced  a  liberal  government, 
represented  by  Louis  Philippe,  calling  him  "king  of  the 
citizens."  The  courage  with  which  the  French  people 
deiended  their  rights,  and  especially  the  bright  success 
oi  the  French  revolution  of  July  electrified  the  Liber- 
als in  all  countries  of  Europe.  In  Switzerland,  too, 
many  Cantons  revolted;  but  there  was  no  blood-shed. 
The  Canton  Thurgan  led  the  dance  of  revolution.  The 
principal  leader  oi  the  party  of  progress  was  Th.  Born- 
hauher,  a  young  minister.  Three  thousand  citizens  as- 
KiubJed  in  Weinlelden  (the  18th  of  November  1830), 
and  demanded  a  new  constitution.  Their  demand  was 
granted. 

In  Zurich,  similar  aristocratic  conditions  were  pre- 
valent like  in  all  Cantons;  deprivation  of  the  people  in 
the  representation  of  the  country,  neglect  of  justice,  con- 
cealment of  the  administration,  inequal  distribution  of 
the  taxes,  want  of  communal  liberty,  and  disregard  of 


212  HISTORICAL  AND  BIOGRAPHICAL. 


the  concerns  of  the  common  schools.  Besides,  there 
were  other  defects,  e.  g.,  preponderance  of  the  citizens 
of  Zurich,  in  all  public  offices  In  the  Superior  court 
ten  members  were  from  the  city,  only  three  from  the 
country;  one  hundred  and  forty  of  one  hundred  and 
sixty  ministers  were  citizens  of  Zurich.  The  22nd  of 
November  ten  thousand  men  assembled  in  lister,  and 
resolved  to  send  a  memorial  to  the  government  in  which 
they  asked,  in  the  name  of  the  people:  for  sovereignty 
of  the  people,  equality  of  rights,  direct  elections,  per- 
formed by  the  people,  separation  of  the  branches 
of  government,  publicity  of  the  administration, 
and  right  of  petition.  The  government  granted 
all  demands  contained  in  the  memorial.  The 
example  of  Zurich  was  followed  by  Argau,  Lueern, 
St.  Gall,  and  most  of  the  other  Cantons.  It  was  an 
exciting  time;  every  Canton  resembled  a  bee-hive: 
there  was  life  and  activity,  wherever  you  looked;  it  was 
a  period  of  political  and  other  civilizing  creations.  The 
acknowledgment  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  was 
the  foundation  ot  all  new  Constitutions;  all  Cantons 
became  representative  republics.  Long  terms  of  offices 
and  lifefong  employment  of  the  officers  of  government 
were  abolished;  equal  rights  established,  privileges 
abrogated.  Concealment  of  the  state  accounts  and  of 
the  condition  of  finances  ceased,  and  the  transactions  of 
the  councils  and  courts  of  justice  were  permitted  to  be 
published  and  criticised  in  the  journals.  The  judiciary  ' 
power  was  separated  from  the  legislative.  The  follow- 
ing fundamental  rights  were  warranted:  personal  free- 
dom, free  settlements,  freedom  of  trade,  freedom  of  the 
press,  right  of  petition,  right  of  association,  and  re- 
ligious liberty.  The  right  to  redeem  the  ground-rent 
was  also  accorded.  The  tithe  which  the  ministers  col- 


HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL*  Z  1  o 

lected  was  abolished  and  they  were  paid  salaries  by 
the  government  for  their  services.  Before  the  revolu- 
tions, the  common  schools  were  in  a  poor,  defective 
state,  and  *most  of  their  text-books  restricted  to  re- 
ligious matters.  8ince,  they  were  entirely  remodeled, 
and  many  school  houses  built.  Many  high  schools 
(called  Secondary  schools)  *and  normal  institutes  were 
added  to  them.  In  Zurich  a  University  was  founded  in 
which  the  great  naturalist  Oken,  the  famous  physician, 
Dr.  Schonlein,  the  critical  editor  of  Cicero's  works,  C. 
Orelli,  and  the  linguist  L.  Ettmnller  were  teachers. 
Besides  the  University,  an  institution  for  the  deaf  and 
dumb,  and  an  other,  for  the  blind,  a  veterinary  school , 
#nd  a  Cantonal  hospital  was  established;  <ilso  a  theatre 
built. 

THE  SEPTEMBER  REVOLT  IN  ZURICH  (1839;) 

The  mentioned  reforms  exasperated  many;  a  great 
number  of  them  raised  up  the  flame  ot  dissatisfaction, 
e.  g.,  discharged  teachers,  and  many  ministers.  The 
latter  ones  were  discontented,  because  sheir  power,  rev- 
enue and  influence  in  the  schools  had  been  diminished, 
and  liberal  teachers  came  forth,  from  the  seminary, 
which  was  directed  by  the  rational  Dr.  Th.  Seherr. 
Besides,  the  city  was  dissatisfied,  because  she  had  lost 
her  privileges.  In  1839  the  government  intended  to 
introduce  liberal  reforms  in  the  Church.  Some  years 
ago  Dr.  David  Strauss  had  written  the  famous  work 
"Life  of  Jesus,"  in  which  he  asserted  and  proved  that 
the  gospel  writers  have  deformed  the  biography  of  Jesus 
by  fictitious  narratives  and  myths.  This  theologian 
was  called  by  the  government  as  professor  to  the  Uni- 

*The  writer  of  these  lines  was  teacher  in  one  of  iheseschooix  for  twenty 
years. 


-14  HISTORICAL    AND  BIOGRAPHICAL, 

verity  of  Zurich.  Though  they  did  not  mean  to  sub- 
ject the  people  co  a  r.ligious  compulsion,  still  their  ad- 
versaries spread  die  rumor  that  the  government 
planned  to  abrogate  the  Bible,  and  to  plant  infidelity 
and  immorality.  i\mtical  and  personal  enemies,  and. 
the  aristocrats  of  the  city  joined  the  Church  party. 
Committees  of  uu:h  w-jra,  in  the  most  parishes,  organ- 
ized which  petitioned  the  government  to  revoke  the  call 
of  Dr.  Strauss.  The  government  did  revoke  it,  and 
pensioned  the  doctor,  Sciii  the  central  committee  con- 
tinued agitating  tne  people.  An  assembly  of  twelve 
thousand  men  directed  an  address  to  the  government 
in  which  they  demanded  more  guarantees  of  the  estab- 
lished Church.  The  reply  of  the  government  did  not 
satisfy  them. 

The  central  committee  issued  a  sunimmons  to  the 
people.  A  minister,  Bern  hard  Hirzei,  ordered  in  the 
night  of  the  5th  of  September  1839  to  toll  the  alarm 
bell.  Thousands  of  the  neighboring  parishes 
set  out.  Ministers  were  most  of  the  leaders.  Near  Zur- 
ich, 5,000  men  were  already  assembled.  The  scream 
of  the  revolters  rolled  incessantly  onward,  towards  the 
city;  religious  hymns  were  sung;  at  the  head  those 
inarched  who  had  regular  arms;  B.  Hirzei  was  their 
leader,  others  who  had  clubs,  cudgels  etc,  followed  after 
them.  Thus  they  marched  to  Zurich.  A  delegation  of 
the  government  could  not  induce  the  crusaders  to  return. 
In  Zurich  they  stopped,  opposite  of  the  few  hundred 
soldiers  whom  the  government  had  ordered  to  form  a 
line.  A  shot  was  fired  from  the  crowd  of  the  revol- 
>md  Hirzei  shouted:  ''Now,  in  the  name  of  God, 
give  fire!"  They  did  so,  but  their  shots  were  too  high 
directed.  Then  the  troops  of  the  government  made  a 
discharge,  and  thirteen  rebels  fell  dead  to  the  ground. 


HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  215 


A  terrible  panic  seized  the  assailants,  and  they  dispers- 
ed themselves  w  th  full  speed.  But  a  new  succor 
arrived  from  the  lake  and  the  combat  was  renewed. 
The  government  ordered  the  troops  to  suspend  it;  forth- 
with, in  the  city  hall,  a  provisory  government  was  or- 
ganized, and  (the  9th  of  September)  the  great  Council 
abdicated.  All  magistrates  were  newly  elected,  where- 
by the  conservative  sentiment  and  the  religious  direct- 
ion of  mind  decided.  Concerning  the  teachers  semi- 
nary this  farce  was  played:  it  was,  in  the  forenoon, 
abolished,  and,  in  the  afternoon,  reopened  in  a  remodel- 
ed form.  Th.  Scherr  was  dismissed.  The  Liberals 
suffered,  for  years,  by  persecution  and  oppression. 

SECESSION  WAR  IN   SWITZERLAND    (1847). 
REFORM  OF  THE  CONSTITUTION. 

The  success  which  the  Conservatives  and  the  Clergy- 
men in  the  Canton  of  Zurich  gained  (1839)  encouraged 
them  to  try  a  similar  scheme  in  other  Cantons.  In 
Argau  they  organized  an  insurrection  against  the  gov- 
ernment. Its  principal  leaders  were  some  monasteries. 
The  revolters  were,  by  the  troops  of  the  government, 
beaten  and  dispersed  (1841).  The  government  abol- 
ished the  refractory  monasteries,  and  employed  their 
revenues  for  the  Church,  the  schools,  the  paupers  and 
for  pensions  of  their  retainers.  The  convents  were  also 
abolished,  but  soon  re-established.  The  Catholic  Can- 
ions  Luzern,  Zug,  Schwyz,  Uri,  Undervvalden,  Frei- 
burg and  Wallis  concluded  a  separate  alliance  (1845). 
Luzern  called  the  Jesuits  into  the  Canton,  and  commit- 
ted them  the  instruction  in  theology  and  the  divine  ser- 
vice in  one  part  of  the  city.  These  Cantons  were  in- 
duced to  secession  by  their  religious  dissensions,  and 
moreover  because  they  feared  that  by  the  revision  of 


216  HISTORICAL  AND  BIOGRAPHICAL. 


the  Constitution  which  the  government  intended  their 
sovereign  rights  might  be  curtailed.  They  armed  for 
war.  They  asked  also  assistance  from  Savoy,  Austria 
and  France.  Savoy  promised  them  two  thousand  arms; 
Austria  money  and  arms;  France  sent  money  and  three 
thousand  arms.  The  arms  and  ammunition  sent  by 
Austria  were  seized  at  the  limits  of  Tessin.  In  1847 
the  Diet  decreed  that  the  secession  league  must  be  dis- 
solved. The  delegates  of  the  seven  Cantons  protested 
against  the  decree.  At  the  same  session,  the  revision 
of  the  Constitutson  was  decided  upon,  and  a  committee 
of  revision  appointed.  The  Cantons  in  which  the  Je- 
suits were  already  established  were  invited  to  dismiss 
them,  and  were  forbidden  to  admit  them  again,  in  the 
future,  into  the  country.  The  secessionists  used  all 
means  to  persuade  the  nation  that  it  was,  with  them, 
the  question  to  combat  for  the  sacred  jewel  of  the  Cath- 
olic religion  against  profane  encroachments.  The 
Catholic  clergy  agitated  the  people  in  every  way  possi- 
ble. The  Diet  tried  ones  more  the  expedient  of  peace- 
ible  information,  sending  to  the  seven  Cantons  commis- 
sioners who  published  a  friendly  proclamation;  but  it 
was  of  no  use^  they  were  not  even  permitted  to  address 
the  people.  One  of  the  leaders  of  the  secession  cried 
to  the  commissioners:  "You  better  let  the  sword  di- 
cide!" 

Meanwhile  the  Diet  chose  Colonel  H.  Dufour  of 
Geneva  general-in -chief  of  the  Confederate  army. 
The  21st  of  October  1847 — 50,000  men  were  summon- 
ed. The  twenty-nine  delegates  of  the  seven  Cantons 
made  their  appearance  in  the  Diet,  and  demanded  the 
assembly  to  warrant  them  their  political  sovereignty 
and  their  religious  rights,  and  to  suspend  the  arming 
of  the  country.  A?  the  Diet  rejected  their  demand, 


HISTORICAL    AM)    mOdllAPUK'AL.  1\  i 

i:the  delegates  declared  that  their  time  to  quit  the  Diet 
has  come,  and  their  speaker  finished  their  protest  with 
the  words:  "The  Almighty  God  may  decide  between  us 
and  you,1'  and  they  left  the  hall,  some  of  them  shedding 
tears.  The  Diet  now  summoned  also  the  reserves* 
The  secessionists,  also,  fast  finished  their  armament. 
Their  general-in-chief  was  Salis-SogUo,  a  Protestant; 
they  could  not  find  .an  abler  commander  among  their 
own  fellow-believers  The  whole  country  was  changed 
into  a  great  war-camp;  there  were  everywhere  arming, 
movements  of  troops,  military  exercises;  the  drum 
.and  the  military  music  everywhere  resounded. 

The  Confederate  army  consisted  of  nearly  100,000 
men;  the  secessionists  counted  37,000;  but  they  armed 
also  the  militia  which  amounted  to  47,003  men;  there- 
fore, they  mustered,  together,  80,000  and  odd  men. 
With  regard  to  armament  and  military  knowledge  the 
Confederate  army  was  the  superior,  for  in  the  Forest- 
Cantons  war-training,  so  far,  rather  had  been  neglected. 
The  Confederate  army  was  composed  of  seven  divisions. 
The  first  division  occupied  Canton  Vaud  in  the  direction 
to  Freiburg;  the  second — the  country  between  the 
rivers  Aare  and  Enime;  the  third  the  district  between 
the  rivers  Em  me  and  Wigger;  the  fourth  the  region 
between  the  rivers  Wigger  and  Reuss;  the  fifth  the 
territory  between  the  Reuss  and  the  lake  of  Zurich; 
the  sixth — the  Cantons  Grisons  and  Tessin.  In  ad- 
dition there  were  three  brigades  of  artillery  and  three 
of  cavalry.  In  this  manner,  the  whole  territory  of 
the  seceding  Cantons  was  surrounded,  as  it 
were,  with  a  cordon.  Their  lands  were  com- 
posed of  three  different  parts:  Freiburg,  the  Forest- 
Cantons  rid  Wallis.  The  access  to  the  Forest- 
Cantons  was  difficult;  they  could  not  be  attacked  but 


I'lo  HISTORICAL    AND  BIOGRAPHICAL,- 

froin  the  side  of  Argau.  Wallis  was  also  hardly  acces- 
sible. Freiburg  was  isolated;  therefore  its  position  was, 
the  weakest.  For  that  reason,  JJufour  intended  to  as- 
sail tirst  Freiburg.  Tuough  it  had  strong  fortifications, 
its  garrison  was  not  large  enough  to  defend  it.  Tne 
13th  of  November  twenty  thousand  Confederates  ad- 
vanced to  the  city  which  was  defended  by  twelve  to 
fifteen  thousand  men.  Duibur  ordered  one  of  nis  gen- 
erals to  execute  a  sham-attack  from  the  east  side,  while 
lie  assailed  it  from  the  opposite  part  where  he  was  at 
least  expected.  The  besieged  we_e  puzzled.  As  they 
were  summoned  to  surrender,  their  government,  the 
same  day,  asked  for  an  armistice;  it  was  accorded  till 
seven  o'clock  in  the  morning.  The  Confederate  troops 
prepared  during  the  nighc  all  arrangements,  necessary 
for  the  battle.  But  as  Duibur  and  his  stad-oiiicers,  the 
14th,  at  the  breaiv  of  tiie  day,  mo  anted  their  horses, 
two  deputies  appeared  to  capitulate.  Tne  capitulation 
was  agreed  upon,  and,  in  tiie  after  noon,  cne  Confederate 
troops  entered  the  fortress.  The  secessionists  were 
thunderstruck  by  the  surrender  of  Freiburg,  it  caused, 
in  the  rest  of  Switzerland,  much  joy,  and  surprise  in 
Europe.  More  resistance  and  energy  of  the  garrison 
had  been  expected. 

Now,  it  was  high  time  to  come  to  work  on  the  north- 
ern side  of  the  seceders,  for  they  had  already  invaded 
Argau.  Therefore,  Duibur  entered  Argau  in  order  to 
wage  the  combat  against  their  centre.  Balis,  then,  re- 
tired his  troops  behind  the  Enime  and  Keuss,  the  nat- 
ural ramparts  of  Luzern;  for,  in  fact,  the  aim  of  Du- 
four  was  directed  against  this  city.  He  would  march 
his  different  divisions,  from  all  sides  to  wards  this  centre, 
and  encircle  it.  He  wanted  to  commence  the  principal 
a  rsault  from  the  eastern  part  of  the  refractory  territory, 


AL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  219 


because  the  secessionists  there  had  strong  positions, 
along  the  Reuss.  It  was  very  dangerous  to  begin  here 
the  attack,  but  it  was  absolutely  necessary.  The 
secessionists  had  made  all  preparations  for  defense. 
The  roads  were  destroyed,  the  bridges  leading  to  Zug 
demolished,  the  connecting  passages  locked  up  by  barri- 
cades of  trees,  and  mines  dug  there  and  here.  The 
artillery  was  placed  on  the  hights  of  Rootenberg.  The 
brdges  of  the  Reuss  and  Emme  especially,  were 
strongly  defended. 

Dufour  commissioned  the  Fourth  and  Fifth  Divisions 
to  make  the  principal  attack;  the  Fourth  ought  to  ad- 
vance on  both  banks  of  the  Reuss,  and  ;the  Fifth,  in  an 
eastern  direction,  parallel  with  the  river,  to  break  its 
path  Lo  Lucerne. 

The  first  movement  of  the  troops  was  directed  against 
Zug.  This  Canton  was  not  vigorously  supported  by  the 
others,  moreover  there  was  a  numerous  adversary  party 
of  liberals.  According  to  this  condition  of  things  it  hap- 
pened what  could  be  expected:  Zug  surrendered  the 
21st  of  November.  This  event,  too,  made  a  sad  im- 
pression in  Lucerne. 

The  23d,  the  principal  combat  happened.  The  second 
brigade  of  the  fourth  division  crossed  the  Reuss  on  a 
pontoon  bridge,  and  occupied  its  left  bank,  while  the 
third  brigade,  with  the  reserve  artillery  which  was 
mounted  on  the  right  bank,  assailed  the  entrenchments 
of  the  enemy.  On  the  left  bank,  the  enemy  was,  by 
aid  of  the  artillery,  repulsed  at  two  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon. On  the  right  side,  several  attacks  were  tried  in 
vain  in  the  midst  of  the  hostile  entrenchments  and  ar- 
tillery. Two  batallions  retreated  before  the  hail  of  grape 
shots.  Two  others  tried  to  advance,  but  could  also 
hardly  stand  the  brunt  of  the  fire.  As  the  last  batallion 


220  HISTORICAL  AND  BIOGRAPHICAL. 


too,  seemed  to  stagger,  Major  Scherrer  seized  the  flag, 
planted  it  by  his  side  and  cried:  "Swissmen,  do  you  know 
what  this  means?"  The  batallion,  encouraged  hereby, 
kept  its  ground,  and  the  combat  was  restored.  But  the 
prospect  was  small,  and  the  danger  of  the  confederates 
great.  Then,  Colonel  Eggloff  let  the  reserve  artillery 
advance,  threw  himself  against  the  yielding  ones,  and 
hereby  succeeded  to  conquer  the  entrenchments  of  the 
enemy. 

Meantime,  the  second  brigade  of  the  fourth  division 
was  fighting  on  a  very  unfavorable  ground,  and 
had  little  advanced  during  an  obstinate  resistance 
of  the  advanced  adversaries  who  occupied  a 
very  advantageous  position  on  the  western  slope  of 
the  Rootenberg.  The  chasseurs  who  ought  to  climb 
the  height  were,  amid  loud  hurrah  of  the  enemy,  several 
times  driven  back.  In  this  difficult  situation,  Major 
Ziegler  sent  part  of  the  brigade  towards  the  hight  of 
the  mountain,  while  he  marched  with  the  other  down 
the  declivity,  to  clear  it.  He  dismounted,  and  led 
himself,  boldly  advancing,  his  troops  up  the  mountain. 
This  invitation  of  the  chief-commander,  and  a  similar 
example  of  other  officers,  broke  the  timidity  of  the 
troops,  and  made  it  possible  to  push  back  the  enemy  so 
far  as  it  was  necessary  to  secure  the  first  brigade,  which 
advanced  in  the  plain,  not  to  be  outflanked.  When 
the  night  was  coming  on,  Salis,  who  had  been  severely 
wounded  by  the  splinter  of  a  grauate,  quit  the  field  and 
retired.  The  troops  which  were  posted  on  the  height 
also  entered  to  their  retreat.  The  confederates  had 
fourteen  dead  and  eighty-four  wounded;  the  adversaries 
twelve  dead  and  forty -two  wounded. 

While  the  western  side  of  the  Rootenberg  was  taken 
the  fifth  division  advanced  on  the  eastern  side  of  the 


HISTORICAL    AN.V>    BIOGRAPHIC Al..  221 

uiiountain.  The  enemies,  after  having  in  two  places, 
resisted  a  short  time,  must  here  also  retire,  and  both 
•divisions,  then,  moved  towards  Lucerne.  At  the  same 
time  there  was  a  combat  a ,  the  upper  part  of  the  lake 
of  Zurich;  but  the  confederates  had  no  success. 

Lucerne  was  now  closely  surrounded  tVom  all  sides. 
The  centre  of  the  Confederate  army  advanced  also;  the 
third  division  marched  from  Argau  towards  the  Reuss, 
-and  the  second  as  far  as  to  Littuu  on  the  Em  me.  The 
alight  wing,  meantime,  had  made  way,  under  hard  com- 
bats, from  the  South-West,  through  Entlibuch. 

In  Lucerne,  anxiety  and  confusion  falgaed.  Tlie 
leaders  of  the  secession  felt  the  ground  shake  under 
their  feet,  and  gave  up.  They  took  to  iiight  on  a 
steam-boat  of  the  lake  of  the  Four  Cantons.  Salis, 
too,  followed.  The  city  surrendered.  The  24th '  of 
November  the  gross  of  Confederate  army  made  its 
entrance,  during  which  Confederate  flags  fluttered  from 
many  houses,  Lucerne  was  occupied,  and  a  new  govern- 
ment organized.  After  these  events,  little  confidence 
rested  more  in  the  aboriginal  Switzerland.  Ob — and 
Nid — Walden,  Schwyz  and  Uri  surrendered,  one  after 
another;  Wallis  longest  persisted;  it  did  not  capitulate 
before  the  29th  of  November;  where  General  Dufour 
had  made  all  dispositions  for  an  attack.  One  of  the 
fugitive  leaders  went  to  Vienna,  where  he  was  preferred 
as  a  ministerial  counselor.  In  the  possession  of  an- 
other a  plan  was  found,  according  to  which  Switzerland 
was  to  be  divided  among  the  three  powers,  Austria, 
Prussia  and  France. 

The  civil  war  was  happily  finished.  It  had  only  last- 
ed about  twenty  days,  and  cost  the  country  not  more 
than  78  dead  and  280  wounded.  This  happy  success 
was  brought  about  by  the  wise,  strategic  conduct  of  the 


222  HISTORICAL    AND  BlOGPvAPHICAL, 

army,  and  the  valor,  and  good  discipline  of  the  tro::ps~ 
The  vanquished  Cantons  had  to  pay  the  expenses  of 
the  war,  about  six  million.-  of  francs.  The  sum  had  to 
be  paid  in  several  installments;  but  in  1852,  Congress 
of  the  country  remitted  to  them  the  rest  of  the  debt,, 
amounting  to  3,334,000  francs. 

The  two  Cantons,  i\reufchatei  and  Appenzel  Inner- 
Rhoden  who  did  not  furnish  their  contingents  of  troops 
for  the  Confederate  army,  had  to  pay  their  amende: 
the  first,  800,000,  the  other  15,000  francs;  The  whole 
sum  was  employed  to  create  a  pension  fund  in  favor  of 
those  Confederates  who,  during  the  war,  were  wounded,, 
and  of  the  widows  and  orphans  of  those  who  were  killed. 
By  subscription,  still  100,000  francs  more  were  collect- 
ed for  the  same  purpose.  The  conquered  Cantons  must 
take  care  of  their  reconstruction.  They  remained  oc- 
cupied till  the  first  installment  of  the  war-costs  was 
paid.  The  Jesuites,  by  dint  of  the  Confederate  occu- 
pation, were  expelled,  and  new,  liberal  governments 
elected. 

After  the  end  of  the  secession  war,  the  Diet  wished 
to  take  in  hand  the  revision  of  the  Constitution  which 
it  had  resolved  on  already  in  summer  of  1847.  But  in 
January  of  1848,  Prussia,  Austria  and  France  sent  to 
Switzerland  notes  in  which  they  demanded  to  restitute 
to  the  seven  Cantons  their  absolute  freedom,  and  to 
abide  keeping  the  old  Constitution  as  long  as  not  all 
Cantons  agreed  with  its  change.  They,  also,  accused 
Switzerland  to  be  the  seat  of  a  propaganda  exerting 
for  the  downfall  of  the  religious,  political  and  social 
foundations  of  the  states.  Fortunately,  then,  the  revo- 
lution of  February,  in  Paris,  broke  out  which  France 
changed  into  a  republic,  and  caused  similar  revolutions 
in  Prussia,  Austria  and  other  German  countries;  those 


LSTOKICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  223 


powers  could  iiot  constrain  their  insolent  demands,  for 
they  had  work  enough  on  hand  in  their  own  states. 
Consequently,  the  revision  could  be  undertaken  without 
being  disturbed.  Switzerland  was  changed  into  a  fed- 
erative state  with  two  Chambers,  like  in  the  United 
States  of  America,  of  which  one  represents  the  nation, 
the  other  the  different  Cantons.  The  interests  of  the 
Cantons  were  subordinated  to  those  of  the  nation,  and, 
especially,  the  sovereignty  of  the  former  ones  limited. 
Besides  these,  the  following  are  the  most  important  en- 
actments of  the  new  Constitution:  A  national  council, 
elected  by  the  people,  and  a  states- council  form  the 
National  Assembly. 

These  fundamental  rights  are  to  the  people  warranted: 
equality  of  rights  (without  any  privileges  of  the  place, 
birth,  family  and  persons,)  free  establishment,  liberty  of 
religion,  liberty  of  the  press,  liberty  of  association,  lib- 
erty of  petition,  and  liberty  of  commerce  and  trades. 
The  affairs  of  the  post,  mint,  weight  and  measures  were 
centralized.  The  cantons  were  forbidden  to  allow  their 
soldiers  to  go  into  foreign  war  service  for  hire.  The 
order  of  Jesuits  is  never  more  to  be  admitted.  A 
confederate  council,  composed  of  seven  members,  pos- 
sesses the  executive  power.  It  is  elected  by  the  con- 
federate Assembly,  and  its  president  is  called  President 
of  the  Swiss  Confederation. 

CIVILIZATION     IN     SWITZERLAND     SINCE 

1830. 

The  civilization  of  Switzerland  made,  in  this  period, 
such  a  gigantic  progress  that  only  its  outline  can  be 
given  in  this  narrow  space.  The  construction  of  pub- 
lic roads  wtw  much  improved.  Exemplary  roads  were 


224  HISTORICAL  AND  BIOGRAPHICAL. 

built  in  all  Cantons,  especially  in  the  mountainous  and 
forest  regions.  Solid  bridges  were  constructed  e.  g.,  the 
bridge  of  Mont  Blanc  in  Geneva,  which  is  one  of  the 
finest  bridges  in  Europe.  Navigation  of  steam-boats 
was  opened  on  all  Swiss  lakes;  first  on  the  lake  of  Le- 
man  (1823). — Today  there  are  in  Switzerland  more 
than  a  hundred  railroads;  the  first  was  running  from 
Zurich  to  Baden  (1847.)  The  main  line  of  the  great 
Swiss  railroad  net.  in  North,  East  and  West,  was  also 
constructed  from  1854  till  1859.  The  length 
of  all  railroads  of  Switzerland,  compared  with 
other  countries  is  only  excelled  by  England  and 
Beige.  Mountain  railroads  were  also  built.  The  first 
was  that  of  the  Rigi,  6,000  feet  high.  The  most  cele- 
brated is  that  of  the  St.  Gotthard,  7,000  feet;  it  joins 
North  and  South  Europe  together.  Engineer  Favre  of 
Geneva,  who  built  it,  and  Dr.  A.  Escher  of  Zurich,  presi- 
dent of  the  company  which  paid  its  expenses  earned  the 
highest  merit  for  its  construction.  The  St.Gotthard  tunnel 
is  the  longest  in  the  world:  48,840  feet.  Next  to  it,  there 
are,  in  this  railroad,  fifty  smaller  ones.  Its  expenses 
amounted  to  238,000.000  francs. 

Industry  rose  to  its  highest  degree.  There  are,  in 
the  highest  villages  of  the  Alps,  amidst  the  mountains, 
factories  and  looms  located  at  a  water-power.  Cotton- 
trade  occupied  the  first  place.  There  were,  in  1830, — 
400,000,  in  1876,— 1,854,000  spindles.  Switzerland  be- 
came the  concurrent  of  Europe.  Zurich  took  the  head, 
where  one  man  (Kunz  in  Uster)  possessed  the  largest 
spinning  trade  in  Europe.  When  young,  he  lived  in 
indigent  circumstances,  and  left,  when  he  died,  thirty- 
six  millions  of  francs.  In  Canton  St.  Gall,  10,000  and 
odd  persons  were  employed  with  embroidery.  The 
products  of  weaving  and  embroidering  found  a  market 


HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

in  Europe,  Asia,  Arnerica,in  the  Orient,  in  Farther  India* 
in  the  Sunda-islauds,  till  Japan;  their  value  was  annual- 
ly 80  millions  of  francs.  Silk-industry  entered  upon 
its  most  splendid  development;  its  principal  seats  were 
Zurich  and  Basel.  It  was  increasing  since  thirty  years, 
when  the  market  of  North  America  opened  to  it.  The 
export  of  its  factories  rose  as  high  as  one  hundred  thirty- 
nine  and  one  half  millions  of  francs  (in  1868.) 
Clock-making  increased  considerably,  especially,  since 
1848,  when,  in  Geneva,  clocks  were  manufactured  by 
machines.  Their  exports,  principally,  took  place  to 
America  arid  Australia.  In  1872—18,  300,000  were 
exported  to  America;  later,  when  this  industry  was 
rising  even  in  America,  the  sale  retrograded.  Neuf- 
chatel  still  employs  9,000  persons.  In  Geneva,  besides, 
manufacture  of  jewelry  flourishes,  which  was  exported 
to  Italy,  Spain,  Germany  and  the  Orient. 

The  use  of  machines  in  all  trades  gave  origin  to  their 
fabrication  in  special  work-shops.  The  first  was  estab- 
lished in  Zurich,  by  Escher,  Wyss  &  Co.;  others  fol- 
lowed its  example.  For  a  time,  straw-plaiting  was 
very  important.  Its  products  were,  in  1840,  sent  prin- 
cipally from  Argovie  to  the  United  States  of  America. 
Its  highest  flourish  was  from  1866  till  1869.  In  this 
time,  its  export  to  America  rose  in  value  from  300,000 
to  3,887,000  francs. 

Like  straw-braiding,  carving  in  wood  had  proceeded 
•even  from  the  people.  Long  ~go,  the  mountaineers  of 
Canton  Bern  had  carved,  during  the  winter,  sundry  ob- 
jects to  fit  up  their  dwellings.  Foreign  travelers  ad- 
mired and  bought  them.  Then  the  inhabitants  began 
to  practice  this  industry  for  commerce,  and  soon  sundry 
firms  arose  in  the  back-woods  ot  Bern.  The  increasing 
visits  of  foreigners  gave  to  this  industry  a  very  bright 


'2*2(5  HISTORICAL    AND  BIOGRAPHICAL, 


success,  and  there  came  carving  institutes  and  drawing; 
schools  in  existence.  These  products  were  even  to> 
America  exported. 

Public  expositions,  too,  promoted  industry.  The 
most  significant  was  in  Zurich,  in  1883.  Switzerland 
participated  also  in  international  expositions,  e.  g.,  of 
London,  in  1851,  and  of  Philadelphia,  at  the  Centen- 
nial, in  1876.  It  won,  at  the  exposition  in  Paris,  in 
1855,  the  first  prize  for  cotton-works,  embroidery  and 
straw-goods.  Agriculture  was  also  advanced,  and 
breeding  cattle  in  the  plains  and  Alps  improved,  e.  g., 
the  value  of  cheese,  exported  to  North  America,  in- 
creased,  till  1873,  to  2,000,000  francs. 

Sciences  and  literature  were,  in  this  period,  cultivated 
with  great  zeal. 

MODERN  COMMON  SCHOOLS   IN    SWITZER- 
LAND. 

Most  of  the  common  schools  of  Switzerland  are  pre- 
sently organized  according  to  the  following  regulations: 

PRIMARY  SCHOOLS. 

The  Primary  schools  (called  common  schools,  in  our 
Country)  teach  reading,  orthography,  grammar,  com- 
positions, arithmetic,  elements  of  geometry,  geography, 
history  and  Constitution  of  the  country,  universal  his- 
tory, natural  science  (zoology  and  botany),  physiology, 
natural  philosophy,  religion,  drawing  and  singing. 
The  girls  learn  also  needle- work.  Text-books  are  used 
for  the  different  branches  of  instruction.  Colored  rep- 
resentations of  the  objects  of  zoology,  and  botany,  and 
an  apparatus  for  physical  experiments  are  found  in  the 
school-rooms.  The  teachers  gather  plants  in  the  fields 
and  gardens,  and  show  them  to  the  scholars  for  exam- 
ination; some  ones  cultivate  them  in  the  school-gardens. 


HISTORICAL   AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  227 

The  scholars  are  obliged  to  go  for  six  years  to  the  pri- 
mary school,  aod  two  years  to  the  repetition-school,  for 
which  one  day  in  every  week  is  appointed.  The  at- 
tendance at  school  is  compulsory.  Parents  who  retain 
their  children  from  school  are  fined  or  imprisoned. 

SECONDARY    SCHOOLS. 

Besides  the  Primary,  also  Secondary  (higher)  schools 
are  established,  in  which  such  learning  is  imparted  as 
it  is  necessary  for  the  higher  education  of  the  people. 
In  the  year  1877  there  existed  many  such  schools, 
forty-seven  in  Canton  Zurich,  eight  in  Thurgau,  twenty 
in  Luzern,  fifteen  in  Bern,  fourteen  in  Argau  &c.  Since 
that  time  their  number  much  increased,  and  where  be- 
fore one  teacher  was  appointed,  there  are  now  two  or 
three  teachers.  No  scholar  is  admitted  to  these  schools 
but  who  graduated  from  the  Primary  department. 
Usually,  their  candidates  are  twelve  years  old.  These 
schools  comprehend  three  annual  courses.  In  1873, 
the  number  of  scholars  in  the  higher  common  schools  of 
Zurich  amounted  to  one  thousand  one  hundred  and 
thirty-three  boys  and  girls.  The  number  of  the  boys 
was  to  that  of  the  girls  like  four  to  one.  The  expenses 
of  these  schools  are,  like  those  of  the  Primary  depart- 
ment, covered  by  the  Cantonal  governments.  The 
branches  of  instruction  are  the  same  as  in  the  Primary 
schools,  but  more  at  large  propounded.  To  these,  for 
the  boys,  are  added:  algebra,  surveying,  the  theory 
of  trades  aud  gymnastics.  Another  branch  of  instruc- 
tion is  the  French  language;  in  several  of  these  schools, 
Italian  and  English,  and  in  some  the  elements  of  Latin 
and  Greek  are  taught. 

These  are  the  higher  common  schools  of  Switzerland. 
The  people  can  regard  them  with  pride;  it  has  founded 


228  HISTORICAL  AND  BIOGRAPHICAL. 

them  with  great  effort,  and  still  supports  them  with 
considerable  sacrifices.  Which  country  can  show  forth 
similar  institutes?  The  Swiss  nation  bestows  the  sums 
which  others  employ  for  lower  objects  upon  its  schools, 
the  most  beneficial  establishments  of  a  country. 

A  new,  higher  life  began,  since  the  foundation  of  the 
Secondary  schools,  among  the  riper  youth  of  the  coun- 
try. Thousands  of  them  fare  daily  to  the  far  distant 
school  house,  and  return  in  the  evening,  after  having 
finished  their  task,  to  their  homes.  Like  bees  which 
gather  honey  in  meadows  and  valleys,  they  retire  to 
their  several  abodes.  The  plainest  food  suffices  to  these 
sound  children  of  Nature.  Neither  mountains  nor  tem- 
pests and  storms  of  snow,  neither  heavy  showers  of  rain 
nor  bad  roads  can  detain  them  from  going  to  school. 

What  blessings  must  these  institutes  procure  to  the 
country  and  to  themselves.  Thousands  went  forth  from 
them  who  now  administer  offices  of  state  or  communi- 
ties, carry  on  agriculture  or  an  useful  trade,  are  occu- 
pied with  commerce  or  fabrication.  These  schools  are 
one  of  the  fundamental  pillars  of  the  Swiss  republic. 

BIOGRAPHIES.     HENRY  PESTALOZZI. 

HIS  EDUCATION. 

Henry  Pestalozzi  was  born  in  Zurich,  the  12th  of 
January,  1746.  His  father  was  a  physician,  his  grand- 
father a  distinguished  minister  in  the  country.  Conse- 
quently Pestalozzi  was  related  to  the  patri  cians;  but  he 
always  sided  with  the  common  people;  he  would  not 
affect  superiority.  He  lost  his  father,  when  six  years 
old.  He  was  the  pet  of  his  mother  who  educated  him 
for  a  recluse.  He  seldom  left  the  fire-side.  The  ser- 
vant girl  (Babeli)  was  the  faithful  assistant  of  the 
mother.  When  Henry's  father  died,  he  begged  her  not 


HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL. 

io  forsake  bis  wife  in  order  that  his  children  might  not 
4)e  trained  by  strangers.  She  promised,  and  kept  her 
word.  The  domestic  finances  were { very  closely  looked 
to  bv  her.  Henry  was  not  permitted  to  g>  much 
abroad  lest  he  should  wear  out  his  shoes  and  clothes. 

He  did  not  make  peculiar  progress  in  the  schools  of 
Zurich,  because  most  of  the  teachers  practiced  the  sys- 
tem of  cudgelling,  and  a  lifeless,  mechanical  teaching 
prevailed.  When  still  young,  lie  possessed  a  deep  feel- 
ing for  right,  honesty  and  liberty.  He  read  the  writ- 
ings of  J.  J.  Rousseau  with  enthusiasm.  The  despotic 
government  of  the  Canton  Zurich  excited  his  indigna- 
tion. Ac  the  age  of  fifteen  he  was  a  member  of  "the 
league  of  friendship,"  established  by  Lavater,  and  crit- 
icised severely  unjust  bailiffs  and  bad  ministers.  He 
was  awkward,  shy  and  disorderly,  but  very  kind  to- 
wards his  school-mates.  At  the  university  he  studied 
Latin  and  Greek. 

CHOICE  OF  A  CALLING. 

He  staid  often  in  the  parsonage,  and  gained  a  taste 
for  theology;  it  was  his  ideal  to  be  a  parson  in  the 
country.  In  his  first  sermon  he  stopped  short  several 
times.  He  imagined  he  had  a  tendency  to  consumption, 
therefore  he  gave  'up  preaching,  to  become  a  lawyer 
believing  he  could,  then,  protect  the  peasantry  against 
the  tyranny  of  the  aristocrats  whom  he  hated.  These 
feelings  of  hatred  were,  at  that  time,  so  intense  that  lie 
declared  to  a  friend  that  be  could  kill  the  despots. 
But  what  charms  could  the  dry  jurisprudence,  and 
the  pandects  of  Justinianus  offer  to  a  young  man  who  was 
full  of  imagination?  And  what  success  could  In 
pect,  if  he  defended  the  rights  of  the  poor  and  oppressed 
against  the  powerful  persecutors  ?  However,  he  followed 
the  study  of  law,  till  he  fell  dangerously  sick.  The 


2dU  HISTORICAL    AND  BIOGRAPHICAL, 

physician  advised  him  to  stay  for  a  long  time  in  the: 
country.  So  he  went  to  Bern  to  a  fanner  who  was  re- 
nowned for  his  successful  cultivating  madder.  He  want- 
ed to  be  instructed  by  him  in  agriculture  and  thereby 
become  a  benefactor  of  the  country  people. 

PESTALOZZI  A  FARMER. 

Pes  alozzi,  having  finished  his  apprenticeship  in  Bern 
turned  farmer  in  Argau.  A  merchant  of  Zurich  en- 
tered in  partnership  with  him  who  bought  one  hundred 
acres  of  heath-land  near  Leuzburg,  which  he  called 
"Xeuhof"  (new  estate),  the  merchant  investing  his  mon- 
ey in  this  real  estate.  He  was  then  twenty-two  years 
old.  Anna  Schultheiss,  the  pretty  daughter  of  a  wealthy 
merchant  in  Zurich,  gave  him  her  heart  and  hand.  She 
was,  for  more  than  forty-six  years,  his  faithful  com- 
panion; she  sacrificed  him  her  property ;in  the  differences 
with  his  teachers,  she  was  often  the  peace-maker;  in  a 
word,  she  was  his  good  genius.  He  found,  during  the 
last  ten  years  of  life,  almost  no  consolation,  but  beside 
her  grave. 

His  enterprise  of  farming  was  a  failure;  he  lost  his 
money,  and  even  suffered  from  distress;  the  truth  is,  he 
was  not  practical.  With  disastrous  results  the  merch- 
ant in  Zurich  withdrew  his  capital.  In  his  distress, 
Pestalozzi  resolved  to  become  a  cultivator  of  men. 
His  mind,  !his  ;talents  and  '"Emil,"  the  great  educa- 
tional work  of  J.  J  Rousseau,  which  he  was  always 
studying,  aroused  in  him  this  purpose.  Rousseau  shows 
in  his  book,  by  what  an  unnatural  method  the  children 
of  his  age  were  educated,  and  how  the  masses  were  op- 
pressed by  the  higher  classes.  But  Pestalozzi  did  not 
follow  Rousseau  in  all  his  teachings;  e.  g.,  concerning 
religious  instruction,  the  latter  one  went  much  farther 
than  Pestalozzi,  for  he  demonstrated  that  Christian  re- 


HJSTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  231 

ligiou  was  not  divinely  inspired,  and    lie    educated    his 
pupil  in  no  religion  at  all. 

HE    BECOME*   A  TEAr'IIER.     RESULT  OF   HIS  FIRST  TRIAL. 

Peslalozzi  founded  a  ohar'ty-school  on  the  Neuhof. 
Beggar  children  flocked  from  Zurich,  Basel  and  Bern 
to  his  farm;  fifty  in  all.  During  summer  they  worked 
in  the  field;  in  winter  they  did  spinning,  .and  other 
handiwork.  In  the  hours  of  instruction,  especially 
exercises  in  speaking  were  given.  It  was  the  plan  of 
Pestalozzi  to  introduce,  by  and  by,  fine  web,  and  cloths 
of  muslin.  But  this  enterprise  also  miscarried.  Most 
of  the  pupils  were  urchins,  spoiled  by  their  parents; 
they  ran  away  in  the  new  clothing  which  Pestalozzi 
had  given  them,  or  were  kidnapped  by  their  own  parents. 
He  persevered  for  a  time;  finally,  when  he  had  no  more 
money,  and  was  in  need  even  of  bread  and  fire-wood, 
and  the  fortune  of  his  wife  was  spent,  too:  he  broke 
down,  and  his  friends  told  him  that  he  could  not  be 
helped  further.  But  his  wife  stood  faithfully  at  his 
side.  Iselin  of  Basel  received  him  in  his  house,  refresh- 
ed his  courage,  and  defended  him  against  his  scoffers . 
Pi.stolozzi  wrote  of  him  after  his  death:  "I  learned,  in 
the  midst  of  Thy  family,  wisdom  of  life;  he  who  saw 
Thee  here  without  feeling  that,  principally,  wife  and 
children  elevate  man  to  true,  blissful  wisdom,  never 
will  become  wisa  and  happy.  The  hours  of  rest,  finally, 
arrived  for  me,  after  long,  desperate  years.  My  wife 
found  here  again  her  husband,  and  my  child  his  father: 
1  was  saved." 

HE  BECOMES  AN  AUTHOR. 

About  this  time,  Pestalozzi  published  a  satyrical  pam- 
phlet. When  Fussli,  the  renowned  painter  of  Zurich, 
read  it,  he  declared  that  Pestalozzi  had  the  talents  for 
making  a  popular  writer,  and  encouraged  him  to  writ 


232  HISTORICAL  AND  BIOGRAPHICAL. 


more,  saying  he  could  make  his  fortune  by  doing  this 
way.  Pestalozzi  obeyed,  and,  in  a  few  weeks,  the 
educational  novel,  "Lienhard  and  Gertrude',  was  com- 
posed. It  was  generally  applauded.  The  economical 
society  of  Bern  seat  him  a  memorandum,  and  a  golden 
medal.  The  book  was  even  translated  into  the  Danish 
and  was  recommended  by  the  government  of  Bavaria, 
to  the  preachers  and  school-teachers.  The  Austrian  minis- 
ter of  finances  desired  to  have  him  in  his  neighbor- 
hood, the  grand  duke  of  Toscana  wished  to  give  him  an 
appointment. 

He  could  not  longer  stand  his  solitude:  he  went  to 
Germany  (1775);  he  wanted  to  become  acquainted 
with  Basedow's  model-institute,  and  hoped  to  have  a 
more  prosperous  time.  He  got  acquainted  with  the  re- 
nowned authors:  Herder,  Klopstock,  and  Goethe.  They 
were  pleased  with  his  mind  which  was  inspired  by  what 
is  highest  in  human  efforts;  but  his  personal  appear- 
ance did  not  recommend  him.  He  was  called  a  strange 
fellow,  a  visionary,  a  fool.  He  could  not  find  a  humble 
position  wherein  to  use  his  talents  and  apply  his  theories. 
During  fifteen  years  he  was  active  only  as  an  author. 
He  published  political  and  philosophical  writings.  He 
was  president  of  "the  order  of  the  Illuminates"  which 
tried  to  promote  enlightment  and  human  welfare,  but 
he  soon  withdrew  from  this.  To  this  period  belong, 
besides  many  compositions  supplied  to  periodicals  the 
following  writings:  Christoph  and  Else — The  A.  B.  C. 
book,  and  his  investagations  of  the  course  of  Nature 
in  the  development  of  mankind  (see  first  Section: 
Pestalozzi's  method  of  teaching.) 

AND  AGAIN  A  TEACHER. 

In  1798  the  French  invaded  Switzerland,  and  waged 


HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  Zoo 

war  against  the  Forest  Can  ons.  Stanz,  the  capital  of 
Underwalden.  was  in  flames;  thousands  of  inhabitants 
were  without  a  shelter,  and  the  children  without  in- 
struction. Le  Grand,  then  at  the  head  of  the  Swiss 
Directory,  summonedPestalozzi,  to  take  care  of  the  des- 
titute children.  Pestalozzi  did  so  for  ten  months. 
He  was,  then,  fifty-two  years  old.  The  school  was  in  a 
convent,  and  a  barn  was  the  bed-room.  Pestalozzi  was 
principal,  superintendent,  treasurer,  hostler,  and  almost 
.servant-girl;  his  wife  was  the  chief  maid-servant.  He 
taught,  fed,  washed,  combed  the  pupils,  played  with 
them,  and  was  day  and  night  in  their  midst.  When 
they  were  in  bed,  they  often  asked  him  to  instruct  them. 
His  teaching  was  a  great  succes.  When  Altorf  in  Canton 
Uri,  was  burned,  twenty  pupils  more  came  to  the 
others  who  shared  their  bread  with  the  new  comers,  and 
as  the  French  occupied  the  country  and  converted  the 
convent  into  a  hospital,  Pestallozzi  moved  to  Burg- 
dorf,  in  Canton  Bern.  But  though  he  was  teaching 
without  claiming  wages,  and  his  pupils  made  good  prog- 
ress, his  efforts  were  not  appreciated,  because  his  method 
was  quite  different  fro  in  the  one  usually  employed.  One 
of  his  scholars,  and  in  later  time,  his  assistant  (Ram- 
sauer)  reports  his  doings  during  the  sessions  of  school 
as  follows:  "If  Pestalozzi  was  warm,  he  gave  the  les- 
sons without  his  coat,  in  his  shirt  sleeves,  and  without  a 
necktie.  Every  scholar  was  drawing  what  he  pleased. 
For  ciphering  they  used  dotted  tablets.  Pestalozzi 
vspeaks  fir  t  alone.  The  scholars  repeat  what  he  said. 
There  were  no  questions,  no  repetitions,  no  examina- 
tions. The  exercises  of  language  were  conducted  on  an 
old,  torn  wall-tapestry.  There  were  no  copy-books  and 
Readers.  The  figures,  rents  and  holes  of  the  tapes!  ry, 
were  most  thoroughly  considered,  and  sentence  by  sen- 


284  HISTORICAL.   AND  BIOGRAPHICAL, 


tence  discussed;  objects  of  natural  history  were  treated 
in  the  same  way;  110  word  of  explanation  was  uttered- 
Pestalozzi  speaks  first,  letting  the  scholars  see  at  the 
same  time,  the  copy  of  what  he  said  before,  written  on 
a  slate.  The  scholars  repeat  in  unison,  eitherspeaking 
and  reading  after  him,  or  not;  for  Pestalozzi  spea! 
fast  and  indistinctly,  that  they  do  not  understand  him. 
and  so  loud  and  continually  that  he  does  not  hear  them. 
At  ten  o'clock  he  is  hoarse,  yet  he  continues  to  speak 
and  has  not  stopped  at  eleven;  at  last  hoarseness  and 
exhaustion  force  him  to  cease."  He  maintained  disci- 
pline among  the  pupils  by  the  love  he  evinced  to  them, 
by  his  zeal  of  teaching  and  by  applying  ear  boxes  right 
and  left.  But  he  could  not  stand  it  longer  to  teach 
such  children;  he  was  exhausted  after  a  year.  Then  a 
normal  school  was  established  in  the  castle  of  Burgdorfy 
and  Pestalozzi  wras  director.  First  it  \vas  a  private  in- 
stitute; and  when  it  became  famous,  the  government 
raised  it  to  the  degree  of  a  public  institution,  which  may 
be  regarded  as  his  first  systematical  attempt  to  reduce 
to  practice  the  principles  of  education  shadowed  forth  in 
his  "Leonhard  and  Gertrude,"  nearly  twenty  years  be- 
fore. He  now  gave  to  the  world  a  full  exposition  of  his 
educational  views  in  "Wie  Gertrud  ihre  Kinder  lehrt"" 
(howT  Gertrude  teaches  her  children.)  This  work  had 
a  w7ide  circulation,  and  attracted  not  only  private  friends 
of  education,  but  deputations  from  several  of  the  Eu- 
ropean governments,  to  visit  ,he  institution  at  Burgdorf. 

In  1803  Pestalozzi  wTas  sent,  with  other  deputies  of 
the  government,  to  Paris,  where  Napoleon,  who  then 
was  first  consul  of  France,  worked  to  frame  lor  Switzer- 
land a  new  Constitution.  Pestalozzi  spoke  fervently  for 
liberty  and  right,  but  without  success. 

In  1804,  w^hen  Napoleon  gave  to  Switzerland   the 


HISTORICAL   AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  235 


Mediation -Act  and  the  castle  at  Burgdorf  which  Pesta" 
lozzi  had  hitherto  occupied  was  wanted  by  the  Bernese 
government,  he  removed  his  school  to  Minchen-Buchsee 
where  the  government  assigned  him  a  monastery  close 
by  Hofwyl,  the  estate  of  Fellenberg,  who  soon  came  to 
have  a  controlling  interest  in  the  management  of  the 
school.  Pestalozzi  found  the  methods  of  management 
introduced  by  Fellenberg  so  different  from  his  own 
that,  in  1805,  he  removed  his  institute  to  Iferten 
(Yverdon)  in  the  Canton  of  Vaud. 

MOST   GLORIOUS  PERIOD  OF  PESTALOZZI,  THE  TEACHER. 

Teachers  were  sent  to  him  for  instruction.  Pupils 
came  to  his  institute  from  all  countries  of  the  world, 
even  from  the  United  States  of  North  America.  His 
system  was  formally  adopted  by  the  Prussian,  and  other 
German  governments.  Persons  of  high  distinction  vis- 
ited his  school,  e.  g.,  Senators  of  France,  Rengger,  Di- 
rector of  the  Swiss  republic,  princes  from  Vienna,  the 
duchess  of  Saxen-Meiningen,  Dr.  Schlosser,  the  great 
German  historian,  Father  Girard,  the  reformer  of  the 
public  schools  of  the  Canton  Freiburg,  earl  Capo  DTs- 
tria,  Russian  minister  of  state,  the  duke  of  Wurtem- 
berg,  General  Kosziusko,  Madame  Stael  etc.  The 
philosopher  Fichte  highly  spoke  of  public  education 
according  to  the  principles  of  Pestalozzi.  Louisa,  the 
beautiful  queen  of  Prussia,  visited  often  Konigsberg, 
where  director  Zeller  had  organized  the  schools  in  the 
spirit  of  Pestalozzi;  and  minister  Altenstein  directed 
this  letter  to  Pestalozzi:  "Convinced  of  the  great  value 
of  the  method  of  teaching  you  invented,  I  intend  to  re- 
form thoroughly  the  state  of  the  schools  of  the  Prussian 
provinces,  and  to  dispatch  to  you  two  young  men  whom 


236  HISTORICAL  AND  BIOGRAPHICAL. 


you  may  select  yourself,  in  order  that   they  can  draw 
the  principles  of  your  method  from  the  purest  source. " 

DECLINE  OF  THE  INSTITUTE. 

But  the  benefit  of  the  institute  did  not  last  long- 
Several  pupils  wished  to  receive  a  higher  education;  not 
all  wanted  to  become  teachers;  some  teachers  were  not 
qualified;  PC  stalozzi  himself  forgot  what  he  had  learned 
in  the  university,  e.  g.,  the  Greek  language.  Generally, 
he  never  possessed  the  profound  knowledge  of  a  scholar, 
and  finally  stopped  giving  any  more  lessons.  The  fre- 
quent visits  of  princes  and  other  distinguished  guests 
were  also  hurtful;  for  the  scholars  took  more  pains  for 
an  ostentatious  display  than  in  acquiring  solid  knowl- 
edge, and  much  time  was  lost  by  such  parades.  But 
from  the  dissensions  of  the  teachers  the  most  injury 
arose.  Pestalozzi  was  good-natured,  and  let  them  do 
as  they  pleased.  There  were  two  parties:  a  Catholic 
and  a  Reformed;  Smith  was  at  the  head  of  the  first, 
parson  Niederer  of  the  other.  In  1810  Smith  left  the 
institute  in  anger;  in  1815  Niederer,  himself,  recalled 
him.  The  next  year  sixteen  teachers  demanded  the  re- 
moval of  Smith,  and,  as  Pestalozzi  not  agreed  to  it,  pre- 
sented their  resignations.  The  situation  of  Pestalozzi, 
after  the  death  of  his  wife,  grew  worse  and  worse.  In 
1817  Niederer  also  separated  from  him,  and  at  last  a 
law-suit  was  carried  on,  which  lasted  several  years,  and 
was  finally  settled  by  arbitration.  The  economy  of  the 
institute,  too,  was  badly  managed.  Though  the  schol- 
ars paid  a  high  tuition,  Pestalozzi  saved  nothing. 

One  more  assistance  was  furnished  to  hinvby  the  edi- 
tion of  all  his  works;  large  contributions  were  supplied 
in  his  distress;  emperor  Alexander  subscribed  5,000 
rubles  (3,750  dollars).  A  charity-school,  in  which 


HISTORICAL    AND    TJL<  )(J  liAPHlCAL,  237 

teachers  and  educator.-;  for  poor  children  got  instruction 
was  founded  with  the  principal.  But  this  school  also, 
from  the  dissensions  of  the  teachers,  broke  up. 

PESTALOZZI'S    DEA.TH. 

This  was  enough  for  the  unhappy  old  man,  he,  sick  of 
his  life,  went  to  the  grave  of  his  wife,  and,  having 
founded  one  charity-school  more,  died  on  the  Neuhof, 
the  27th  of  February,  in  1827,  being  eighty-one  years 
of  age.  His  last  works  were,  "Events  of  My  Life,"  in 
which  writing  he  confessed  what  he  had  designed,  but 
imperfectly  achieved,  and  his  "Song  of  the  Dying 
Swan."  His  last  words  were:  "I  pardon  my  enemies; 
may  they  now  find  peace  as  I  enter  to  the  eternal  peace! 
I  should  have  liked  to  live  one  month  more  for  the 
sake  of  my  works;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  I  thank  the 
Providence  which  recalls  me  from  this  life." 

HIS   CHARACTER,    EXTEJOR   APPEARANCE  AND  CUSTOMS. 

Pestalozzi  was  enthusiastic  and  full  of  animation,  till 
his  old  age,  for  right  and  humanity,  and  was  ready  to 
sacrifice  every  thing  for  it.  In  1814  he  waited  on 
Frederick  William  III. ,  king  of  Prussia,  in  Neufehatel. 
Though  very  sick,  he  went  there  with  his  assistant 
teacher,  Ramsauer.  He  swooned  on  the  road  several 
times.  His  companion  advised  him  to  turn  back. 
Pestalozzi  cried:  "Keep  your  peace!  Suppose  even 
that  I  die  on  my  journey,  I  am  plentifully  recompensed, 
if  I  can  effect,  by  my  presence,  that  only  one  child  can 
be  better  instructed."  About  the  same  time,  he  had  an 
audience  with  Alexander  1.  in  Basel.  His  knees  shook 
with  fear;  the  emperor  received  him  courteously;  Pcstr.- 
lozzi  approached  him;  Alexander  retired  to  the  other 
corner  of  the  room;  Pestalozzi  followed,  and  stretched 
<»ut  the  hand  to  touch  him;  he  seizes  his  hand,  and 


230  -VoUh'AL    AND  BIOGRAPHICAL, 

would  kiss  it,  but  Alexander  embraces  and  kisses  him 
us  a  father  his  son. 

Pestalozzi  was  compassionate;  he  often  shared  his  last 
tforin  with  a  poor  man.  When  he  was  on  the  way  to 
have  audience  with  Alexander  of  Russia,  he  met  before 
the  doors  of  the  city  an  indigent  man  who  implored  his 
charity;  as  he  had  no  money,  he  untied  the  silver  buck- 
les of  his  shoes,  gave  them  to  the  destitute,  and  tied  his 
shoes  with  straw. 

His  temperament  was  melancholic-choleric.  The  ex- 
pression of  his  face  showed  very  different  changes  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  emotions  which  animated  him;  some- 
times it  expressed  mildness,  sometimes  pain,  sometimes 
terrible  earnestness.  The  eyes  were  deeply  sunken;  the 
forehead  rounded;  the  voice  in  various  ways  modu- 
lated; now  by  soft  tones,  then  by  angry  sounds  of  thun- 
der; his  walk,  sometimes  hasty,  sometimes  pensive;  the 
breast  vaulted;  the  neck  big  and  bent;  muscles 
strong  and  tight;  the  body  hardly  of  middle  size. 

Pestalozzi  retained  his  customs  and  failings  even  to 
old  age;  there  was  always  the  same  disorder  in  his  dress- 
ing, and  in  his  entire  house-keeping.  He  always  dressed 
poorly,  appeared  often  unwashed,  uncombed,  unshorn, 
with  the  coat  wrongly  buttoned,  the  shoes  trodd?n  down, 
the  stockings  hanging  down.  Only  if  he  had  a  distin- 
guished visitor,  he  wore  a  dress-coat;  but  then  it  hap- 
pened many  times  that  he  went  in  it  even  to  bed.  He 
slept  little,  he  was  awake  at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
and  dictating  in  his  bed,  and  often  he  went  himself,  un- 
dressed, for  the  clerk. 

This  was  Pestalozzi,  the  greatest  German  pedagogue 
of  his  age.  His  centennial  anniversary  was  celebrated 
not  only  in  Switzerland,  but  in  all  Germany;  on  this 
uccasion  the  Canton  Ar^au  decorated  his  new  moau- 


IILSTOKK'AL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  239 

ment  with  this  inscription:  'vHere  rests  Henry  Pesta- 
lozzi,  born  in  Zurich,  in  1746,  died  in  Brugg,  in  1827, 
savior  of  the  poor  on  Neuhof,  in  Stanz  father  of  the  or- 
phans, in  Burgdorf  and  Minchen  Buchsee  founder  of  the 
new  common  school,  in  Iferten  educator  of  mankind; 
man,  Christian,  citizen,  all  for  others,  nothing  for  him- 
self. Peace  to  his  ashes!  The  grateful  Argau  in  1846." 
In  Germany,  they  tried  to  make  this  jubilee  a  blessing 
for  future  years  by  founding  Pestalozzi  institutions. 

L.  BEETHOVEN,  FRANCIS  SCHUBERT,  FRAN- 
CIS ABT,  AND  G   NAEGELL 

My  Personal  Acquaintauce  With  The  Great  Composer.s 

When  I  was  a  boy,  it  was  my  priviledge  to  be  ac- 
quainted with  two  great  musicians:  L.  BEETHOVEN,  and 
FR.  SCHUBERT.  Perhaps  some  of  my  benevolent  readers 
like  to  read  the  particulars  of  my  Acquaintance.  Being, 
then,  ten  years  old,  I  had  to  sing,  almost  every  night 
in  the  opera  house  of  Vienna.  At  that  time,  in  1813 
Beethoven's  great  opera,  "Fidelio,"  was  studied  by  the 
musicians  of  the  house.  Many  rehearsals  were  necess- 
ary. I  sang  under  the  direction  of  Beethoven.  He 
was  very  particular,  to  get  every  note  played  correctly. 
So,  I  remember,  the  trumpeter  had  to  repeat  a  solo  a 
hundred  times.  The  representation  of  the  opera  was  a 
great  success.  It  was  given,  in  the  winter  of  that  year, 
many  times.  A  musical  friend  of  Beethoven  paid  him 
the  compliment  that  his  work  was  excellent,  but  had  one 
delect,  namely,  that  it  was  too  short.  Some  years  later, 
Beethoven  commenced  to  compose  h  s  world- renowned 
symphonies.  It  was  at  the  time  of  the  dethronement  of 
Napoleon  I.,  when  the  great  Congress  of  Vienna,  held 
its  sessions  All  the  highest  sovereigns  of  Europe  were, 
then  present  in  this  city.  Many  festivals  were  arrang- 


240  HISTORICAL  AND  BIOGRAPHICAL. 

ed  to  their  honor  and  amusement.  The  symphonies  of 
Beethoven  were  also  played.  They  were  by  many  ad- 
mired; but  some  musicians  objected  to  Beethoven's  new 
style  of  composition.  I  knew  a  good  composer  who 
could  not  stand  his  music.  His  name  was  Abbe  Stacller. 
When  he  was  present  in  a  concert  in  which  some  com- 
position of  Beethoven  was  performed  he  immediately 
left  the  hall. 

It  is  known  that  Beethoven,  in  later  years,  was  deaf. 
Some  English  men,  admirers  of  his  talents,  presented 
him  a  piano  which  was  furnished  with  a  speaking- 
trumpet  in  order  to  enable  him  to  continue  his  musical 
activity.  Nevertheless  his  compositions  produced  with 
the  aid  of  this  instrument  did  not  reach  the  accomp- 
lishment of  the  former  ones.  I  heard  his  last  grand 
mass,  which  he  composed  at  this  piano;  but  it  did  not 
take  the  affections,  though  it  was  perfectly  constructed 
according  to  the  rules  of  harmony. 

With  regard  to  the  accident  which  caused  the  deaf- 
ness of  the  artist,  the  following  tale  was  in  Vienna  di- 
vulged :  Beethoven  used  to  take  frequent  walks  outside 
of  the  city  to  the  moat  which  surrounded  the  city 
and  was  thickly  overgrown  with  grass  and  most  time 
dry.  We,  the  students,  met  him  often  on  these  rambles. 
Once,  in  the  summer  time,  he  walked  again  to  the  ditch, 
and  as  he  arrived  there,  he  lay  down  in  the  grass,  and 
fell  asleep.  During  his  slumber,  a  tempest  drew  near, 
a  heavy  shower  fell,  the  perspiration  of  tho  sleeper  was 
interrupted,  and  the  shower  impaired  his  organ  of  hear- 
ing. 

When  Beethoven  took  a  walk,  he  was  always  alone. 
I  never  saw  him  smile.  His  body  was  of  middle  size, 
and  well  proportioned.  It  is  known  that  he  at  last, 
suffered  from  dropsy;  the  first  time,  he  was  operated 


HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  241 

•  \vith  good  success,  but  at  the  second  attack,  he  suc- 
cumbed to  the  disease.  He  had  a  peculiar  custom  to 
direct  orchestras:  when  a  passage  must  be  played  piano, 
he  gradually  stooped,  and  when  it  it  was  forte,  he  rose 
again  to  his  full  size.  We,  the  boys,  could  not,  then, 
help  laughing. 

Francis  Schubert,  the  best  composer  of  songs,  was  my 
school-fellow,  some  ten  years  older  than  I.  We  were 
both  educated  in  the  Imperial  Seminary  of  Vienna,  at 
the  expense  of  the  Emperor  of  Austria,  because  we 
were  engaged  to  sing  in  his  chapel  and  palace.  Schu- 
bert was  not  a  very  good  scholar  of  the  public  school, 
but  a  passionate  student  of  mu:ic.  He  had  hardly  fin- 
ished the  literary  studies  of  the  gymnasium,  when  he 
commenced  to  create  compositions.  He  was  used 
to  play  them  first  in  the  presence,  of  his  fellow  stu- 
dents. So,  I  heard  hhn  play  his  wonderful  fine 
song,  "The  Earl  King,"  a  ballad  of  Goethe, 
one  of  his  earliest  compositions,  before  it  was 
published  in  print.  The  part  of  the  base  of  this  song, 
imitates  the  galop  of  the  horse  by  trioles,  and  this  origi- 
nal idea  struck  lively  our  imagination.  Schubert  owes 
his  musical  fame  to  the  particular  arrangements  of  the 
Imperial  Seminary.  Besides  our  official  exhibitions,  we 
had  free  instruction  in  all  kinds  of  musical  instruments, 
and  we  gave  regular  concerts  in  the  evenings,  three 
times  a  week  in  our  hall.  The  different  instruments  of 
the  orchestra,  were  played  by  the  students  themselves. 
By  these  exercises,  the  musical  hearing  of  Schubert  was 
In  time  cultivated. 

When  I  was  living  in  Zurich,  I  was  also  acquainted 
with  the  two  famous  composers  of  songs,  Francis  Abt 
and  George  Naegeli.  There  were  many  singing  clubs 
in  the  canton;  !.  was  a  member  of  such  a  one,  and  Abt 


AND  BIOGRAPHICAL, 


was  our  leader.  On  Sundays  afternoon  we  had  our 
regular  meetings  under  his  direction.  He  composed, 
many  songs  for  these  clubs,  they  did  not  excel  by  pro- 
foundness of  invention,  but  were  good  enough  to  culti- 
vate the  musical  talent  of  the  singers,  most  of  whom 
were  artisans  and  mechanics.  As  I  saw  that  Abt  was  a 
musical  genius,  I  advised  him  to  try  his  talents  in  a 
higher  sphere  of  music,  and  to  compose  an  opera;  but 
he  did  not.  The  best  of  his  songs,  "When  the  Swal- 
lows Return  Home,"  was,  several  years  ago,  performed 
in  Boston  under  his  direction,  with  immense  applause. 
George  Naegeli  was,  in  his  time  of  life,  the  best  com- 
poser in  Switzerland.  When  I  was  a  candidate  for  a  school 
in  Zurich,  he  examined  me  in  the  art  of  singing.  He 
handed  me  a  song  book,  and  in  it  he  pointed  out  several 
airs  which  I  had  to  sing  in  the  presence  of  many  school- 
candidates  and  school- trustees  who  wanted  teachers  for 
their  schools  My  performance  was  satisfactory  to 
Nageli,  and  after  having  passed  examination  on  the 
German  and  French  language,  geography,  and  other 
branches  of  the  public  high  schools,  I  received  a 
Certificate'  and  was  appointed  teacher,  first  in  Uster, 
and  three  years  later,  in  Under strass,  a  suburb  of 
Zurich,  where  I  was  teaching  for  seventeen  years.  Dur- 
ing this  long  period  I  had  often  opportunity  to  excute 
Nageli's  compositions. 

W.    MOZART. 

Extract  from  H.  Rau's  "Life  of  an  Artist,"  ("Ein  Kunstlerleben.") 
Three  Volumes. 

THE  BOY  MOZART. 

WOLFGANG  AMADEUS  MOZART  was  born  the  27th 
of  January  1756  in  Saltzburg,  where  his  father  was  vice- 
music  director  of  the  cathedral,  and  composer  of  a  good 


HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  243 

violin  school.  Wolfgang  and  his  sister  Anne  only  sur- 
vived of  seven  children.  When  three  years  old,  Wolf- 
gang was  playing  school-teacher  with  his  playmate,  as 
the  canary  bird,  in  the  same  room,  commenced  to 
warble  its  melodious  sounds.  The  child  ceased  to  play, 
and  listened  to  the  warbling  bird;  it  had  ceased  a  long 
time  to  sing,  but  the  little  one  was  still  sitting  motion- 
less in  the  corner  of  the  room.  When  Anne  was  seven 
years  of  age,  the  father  gave  her  the  first  piano  lesson; 
the  eyes  of  the  boy  did  not  stop  to  watch  her  fingers. 
As  she  left  the  piano,  he  stole  to  the  instrument,  and 
repeated  the  sxercise,  note  by  note,  with  his  little  fingers,, 
without  a  mistake.  The  father  cried:  "Clever  boy!  yes, 
thou  becomest  *  musician."  When  he  was  four  years 
old,  he  sat  down  at  the  desk  of  his  father  and  wrote  a 
concerto  for  an  entire  orchestra,  but  at  the  same  time, 
he  covered  the  paper  with  many  blots  which  he  wiped 
cut  with  the  fingers  by  hastiness;  still  all  was  composed 
according  to  the  rules  of  harmony.  As  the  father  saw 
the  composition  he  trembled  from  joy,  Wolfgang  ran  to 
the  piano,  and  began  to  play  the  piece.  His  mother 
.and  sister  also  joined  in  company.  A  companion  of  the 

fa  her,  Count  H ,  exclaimed  "Germany  will  one  day 

look  with  pride  to  your  son."  When  five  years  old,  he 
composed  already  little  pieces.  He  showed  also  great 
talent  for  mathematics;  he  was  in  a  short  time  a  clever 
reckoner,  and  solved  easily  the  most  complicated  exam- 
ples of  arithmetic  by  heart.  On  their  journey  to  Vienna 
Mozart  and  his  son  stopped  in  Ips,  a  little  town 
where  a  monastery  with  a  splendid  organ  was.  Wolf- 
gang asked  the  father  to  explain  him  the  pedal.  The 
father  agreed  with  pleasure.  The  boy  removed  the 
foot-stool,  and  after  the  father  had  put  the  bellows  in 
motion  Wolfgang  played  standing,  and  treaded  the  pedal 


244  HISTORICAL  AND  BIOGRAPHICAL. 

as  if  he  had  practiced  it  for  months.  The  monks,  in 
the  dining  room,  were  astonished,  and  wondered  still 
more  as  they  heard  playing,  and  did  not  see  an  organ- 
ist. 

When  six  years  old,  Wolfgang  played,  in  Vienna,  in 
the  presence  of  the  empress  Maria  Theresa  and  the 
imperial  court.  All  were  charmed.  The  performances 
of  the  sister,  also  pleased  much,  but  she  was  thrown  in 
the  shade  by  the  delivery  of  the  brother.  "Hear, 
Wolfgang,"  the  emperor  told  him,  ''it  is  no  great  art 
to  play  with  all  fingers,  but  to  play  with  one  finger,  or 
on  a  covered  piano,  that  would  deserve  admiration." 
Wolfgang  kept  silent,  but  instead  of  answering,  he 
stepped  again  to  the  instrument  and  performed  several 
very  difficult  passages  with  one  finger;  then  he  let  the 
keys  of  the  piano  be  covered,  and  played  so  well  that 
the  hearers  eould  but  believe  that  he  had  prepared- for 
this  kind  of  exhibition  by  long  practice;  still,  it  was 
the  first  time  that  he  had  tried  it.  Both  children  re- 
ceived a  golden  diamond  ring  and  one  hundred  ducats 
for  a  present.  They  were  called  "wondrous  children," 
and  the  fame  of  Wolfgang  penetrated  Europe.  When 
his  father  was  persuaded  that  nature  had  invested  his 
son  with  extraordinary  talents,  he  devoted  his  whole 
energy  to  his  musical  education.  The  piano  did  not 
suffice  to  the  boy;  he  said:  "I  must  also  learn  to  play 
violin."  He  learned  it  during  the  time  when  his  father 
was  absent  from  home.  A  scholar  of  the  old  Mozart 
wanted  to  rehearse  several  trios  he  had  composed.  The 
little  one  asked  the  father  to  permit  him  to  play  the  sec- 
ond violin.  His  father  who  did  not  know  that  the  son, 
meanwhile,  had  learned  the  instrument,  refused  his  re- 
quest with  hard  words,  but  granted  it,  when  the  child 
commenced  to  cry,  and  the  violinist  asked  the  father  to 


HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  245 


/give  him  the  permission.  But  when  the  father  heard 
;how  precisely  and  nicely  the  little  fiddler  played,  big 
tears  rolled  along  his  cheeks,  and  he  whispered  into  the 
*ear  of  the  child:  "We  travel  to  Paris." 

After  having  visited  several  German  countries  and 
cities,  the  parents  and  both  their  children  came  to 
France,  and  passed  through  the  castle  of  Choisy-le-Roi, 
where  was  also  a  church  with  an  organ.  The  little  Mo- 
zart, hardly  seven  years  of  age,  played  on  it.  The 
queen  of  France  and  her  supreme  stewardess  walked  in 
the  park,  heard  the  sounds,  and  listened  in  profound 
emotion.  The  low,  distant  tones  sounded  on  so  sweet 
.and  devout,  and  so  telling  to  the  heart  that  both  ladies 
shed  tears.  They  had,  involuntarily,  clasped  their 
hands  and  hearkened,  half  hearing,  and  half  praying, 
till  it  grew  still  and  stiller,  and  finally  the  solemn 
silence  of  the  park  returned.  "These  were  not  terres- 
trial sounds,"  said  the  queen,  who  was  disposed  to  every 
religious  enthusiasm:  "I  feel  that  it  was  the  voice  of  the 
spirits  of  this  Castle  who  would  appease  my  heart;  they 
have  succeeded." 

The  high  castes,  in  Paris,  received  the  children  grati- 
ously,  and  made  them  hundreds  of  little  presents.  Per- 
mission was  granted  to  them  to  play  concerts  in  the 
theater,  in  spite  of  the  privileges  of  the  opera  company. 
The  queen  wanted  to  hear  Wolfgang  in  her  private 
apartments,  and  he  was  permitted  to  play  in  her  presence 
and  that  of  the  king  and  Madame  Pompadour.  Many 
of  the  courtiers  received  the  piece  he  performed  indiffer- 
ently though  it  was  brilliant  and  very  difficult;  they 
did  not  consider  that  children,  not  grown  artists,  were 
the  performers.  The  boy  asked  the  king  to  give  him  a 
theme  on  which  he  should  play  a  fantasia.  The  king 
gave  him  one  from  aa  opera  which,  at  that  time,  was 


2T46  liisroiuc'AL  AND  BIOGRAPHICAL,, 

popular,  and  continued  to  play  cards.  But  he  was  soon? 
so  surprised  by  the  performance  of  the  child  that  he 
threw  away  the  cards,  and  rose.  The  court  followed, 
his  example,  and  Wolfgang  drew  never  heard  melodies 
from  the  instrument.  After  having  finished,  the  king; 
called  "Bravo"  which  was  the  signal  of  general  applause 
of  the  court.  Madame  Victoire,  the  favorite  daughter 
of  the  king,  surfeited  the  child  with  kisses.  He  repeated 
the  feat  which  he  had  achieved  in  Vienna,  to  play  on  a 
piano  which  was  covered  with  a  table-cloth;  it  trans- 
ported all  to  the  highest  enthusiasm.  The  music 
teacher  of  the  princesses  wrote  down  a  minuet  for  him 
under  which  he  ought  to  write  the  bass.  He  did  so,  and 
without  approaching  the  piano,  he  wrote  the  bass  regu- 
larly under  the  minuet  what  even  the  music  teacher 
would  not  have  been  able  to  perform.  Madame  Ad- 
daide  of  France  asked  him  if  he  was  able  to  accompany 
a  cavatina  which  she  knew  by  heart.  He  answered 
that  he  would  try  it,  and  played  the  bass,  while  she  was 
singing,  certainly  not  entirely  correctly,-  tor  it  is  impos- 
sible to  adapt  exactly  the  accompaniment  to  a  song: 
which  you  do  not  know.  After  having  finished  he  re- 
quested her  to  repeat  the  song;  now  he  played  the  whole 
air  with  the  right  hand,  and  added  the  bass  with  the 
left,  conformable  to  rule,  whereupon,  according  to  his 
request,  she  repeated  the  air  still  ten  times,  and  he 
changed  the  character  of  his  accompaniment  at  every 
repetition.  This  performance  was  the  "non  plus  ultra" 
(which  nothing  could  surpass),  and  effected,  in  the  aris- 
tocratic assembly  an  enthusiasm,  unparalelled  before, 
Madame  Victoire  who  understood  German  did  not  let 
the  boy  go  more  from  her  arms;  she  took  herself  a  dia- 
mond broach  from  her  bosom,  and  fixed  it  on  his  shirt, 
and  the  queen  fed  him  with  delicacies  like  a  little  bird. 


HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  247 

Immense  crowds  visited  his  concerts,  and  he  celebrated 
on  the  organ,  almost  greater  triumphs  than  on  the 
piano.  A  shower  of  presents  recompensed  the  young 
artists.  The  portraits  of  the  father  and  the  children 
were  published,  and  the  best  composers  of  Paris  brought 
them  their  compositions.  Now  his  first  compositions, 
four  sonatas  for  piano  with  accompaniment  for  violin 
ad  libitum,  made  their  appearance  in  Paris.  They 
were  dedicated  to  Madame  Victoire  of  France,  and  to 
Madame  Countess  Tassi. 

After  an  excursion  to  England  Mozart  returned  with 
the  children  to  Saltzburg.  The  son  here  continued  to 
compose  several  works,  e.  g.,  a  mass,  which  was  executed' 
in  Vienna,  in  the  presence  of  the  Court,  and  directed 
by  himself.  He  studied  double  bass  according  to  the 
best  masters.  The  bishop  shut  him  up  in  order  to 
make  him  write  a  musical  composition;  it  proved  ex- 
cellent, and  the  priest  conferred  on  Wolfgang  the  title 
"Master  of  concerts."  The  boy  was  then  thirteen  years 
old. 

MOZART,  THE  YOUTH. 

When  Mozart  was  fourteen  years  old,  he  went  with 
his  father  to  Italy,  at  that  time  the  high  school  of 
music,  in  order  to  complete  his  studies.  He  spoke 
fluently  the  Italian  language,  and  knew  the  master- works 
of  the  Italian  composers.  As  soon  as  he  arrived  in 
Bologna,  the  managers  of  the  Opera  house  engaged  him 
to* write  an  opera  for  the  carnival.  He  wished  to  be 
admitted  to  the  Philharmonic  society,  then  the  highest 
tribunal  of  musical  art  in  Italy,  and  in  the  world.  All 
of  the  highest  cultivated  and  musical  inhabitants 
hurried,  at  the  day  of  examination,  to  the  halls  of  the 
Philharmonic  academy.  The  youth  was  shut  up  in  a 
room.  The  most  famous  music-directors  ought  to  be 


248  HISTORICAL  AND  BIOGRAPHICAL. 

his  censors.  He  should  within  three  hours,  elaborate, 
according  to  the  rules  of  counterpoint,  the  four  parts  of 
the  antiphony  of  a  psalm.  He  finishedjthe  composition 
in  a  half  hour.  The  case  never  had  occurred.  The  cen- 
sors commenced  the  examination  of  the  work;  it  lasted 
one  hour,  then  the  white  and  black  ballots  were  handed 
over  to  them.  When  collected  it  appeared  that  all 
were  white.  All  members  of  the  academy  saluted  him 
with  the  loud  acclamation,  "Evviva  il  maestro  'evviva 
il  cavaliere  filarmonico." 

He  heard,  in  the  Sistine  chapel,  the  famous  "Miserere" 
of  Allegri,  executed  by  thirty-two  singers.  In  the 
evening,  as  he  came  home,  both,  father  and  son  had 
scarcely  gone  to  the  same  bed,  and  the  former  fallen 
asleep,  when  the  son  rose  softly,  took  music-paper,  and 
wrote  the  Miserere  from  memory.  This  master-work 
was  kept  secret  upon  pain  of  .excommunication.  In 
the  morning  the  father  read  its  copy,  done  correctly, 
with  much  surprise.  In  Naples  Amadeo  (as  the 
Italians  called  Mozart,  because  this  given  name  sounded 
more  sonorous  to  them  than  "Wolfgang")  played, 
in  the  Conservatorio  della  pieta,  as  usually;  a  scholar 
noticed  that  it  was  no  wonder,  because  Amadeo  wore 
an  enchanted  ring  on  his  finger.  Mozart  stripped  the 
ring  from  the  finger,  and  played  if  possible  still  more 
charmingly.  Pope  Clemens  the  XIV.  gave  him  the 
order  of  the  golden  spur,  which,  besides  Mozart,  only 
composer  Gluck  had  received.  Mozart  composed  the 
opera  "Mithridates"  for  the  theater  of  Milan.  The 
director  of  the  orchestra  hated  him  because  he  was 
still  so  young,  avoided  the  artificial  ornaments  of 
Italian  song,  and,  instead,  introduced  new,  natural, 
sensative  forms  for  song  and  accompaniment.  There- 
fore he  wanted  to  check  the  success  of  the  opera,  and 


HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  249 


^engaged  in  the  partei-re  and  among  the  choristers  per 
.sons  who  should  disturb  the  music.  Mozart  and  his 
father  were  warned  by  a  friend,  and  the  father  was  ad* 
vised  to  place  himself  at  the  side  of  the  director  when 
lie  would  come  on  the  stage  and  mingle  with  the  chorus. 
As  the  opera  commenced,  the  father  did  so,  and  de- 
taining the  arm  of  the  director  hindered  him  from  giv- 
ing the  concerted  signal;  no  disturbance  was  possible, 
and  the  opera  was  received  with  great  applause. 
Thousands  of  voices  cried  at  the  end  of  the  perform- 
ance: Evviva  il  maestro,"  As  Mozart  left  Italy, 
Milan  honored  him  by  the  commission  to  write,  for  the 
carnival,  the  first  "opera  seria,"  and  Maria  Theresa 
wished  a  great  theatrical  serenade  written  by  him. 
He  composed  soon  two  other  operas  for  Milan,  aid 
many  other  pieces  of  music.  He  contested  the  glory  of 
the  most  famous  composers, 

In  1777  he  returned  toSaltzburg,  where  he,  as  master 
of  concerts,  received  a  salary  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
florins.  Besides,  the  Archbishop  treated  the  artists  of 
his  chapel  mtanly.  Mozart  desired  to  obtain  a  higher 
sphere  of  activity-  He  addressed  to  the  prince-elector 
of  Bavaria  a  request  for  an  appointment,  but  he  rejected 
him,  feeding  him  with  the  hope  of  future. 

From  Munich  he  wandered  with  his  mother  to  Man- 
heim,  where  he  was  introduced  to  a  Mr.  Weber,  an 
officer  of  the  prince-elector,  and  his  future  father-in- 
law.  Mr.  Weber  had  two  daughters,  Aloysia,  and  Con- 
stance. Mozart  gave  to  the  former  singing  lessons  on 
the  piano.  Constance  fell  in  love  with  him;  but  he 
loved  Aloysia,  whereby  her  sister  was  deeply  afflicted. 
He  expected  to  be  employed  by  the  prince-elector  whose 
children  he  had  instructed  during  S3veral  months  for 
nothing;  but  ai;  envious  musical  charlatan  knew  how  to 


HISTORICAL    AND  BIOGRAPHICAL, 


belittle  his  talents  and  performances,  and  Mozart  must 
withdraw  again  empty  handed.  Now  he  went  with 
his  mother  to  Paris.  He  was  recived  politely,  but  in- 
differently. In  music,  the  Italian  and  French  taste 
prevailed.  Even  Gluck  did  not  please.  A  duchess 
(her  name  was  Chabot),  to  whom  Mozart  delivered  an 
introductory  letter,  let  him,  though  it  was  winter,  wait 
for  half  an  hour  in  a  cold  room.  Then  he  should  play 
in  her  preface,  upon  a  bad  instrument,  with  numbed 
fingers;  he,  nevertheless,  played;  but  when  she,  mean- 
while, amused  herself  with  young  gentlemen,  he  got 
out  of  patience,  stopped  and  rose;  still  he  continued 
again  as  her  husband  arrived,  who  treated  him  politely. 
The  Court  did  not  take  notice  of  him;  therefore  he  had 
to  give  again  lessons,  in  order  to  make  a  living.  He 
exhausted  himself  by  working  for  his  patrons,  who  did 
not  give  him  a  penny  in  recompense.  So  he  had  suffered 
for  six  months,  as  his  beloved  mother  died  in  his  arms. 
Aloysia  Weber,  his  sweet-heart,  also  turned  faithless, 
marrying  the  player  Lange.  Her  sister  Constance 
loved  him  now,  without  his  knowledge,  so  much  more 
faithfully.  He  went  again  to  Ssltzburg,  when  his  father 
had  conquered  to  him  the  place  of  "court  and  cathedral 
organist." 

MOZART,  THE  MAN. 

Mozart,  the  youth,  wanders  about  for  nearly  twenty 
years,  visiting  several  countries,  in  which  he  gets  familiar 
with  their  musical  genius.  He  tries  his  talents  in 
every  style;  he  is  Italian  in  Milan,  Frenchman  in 
Paris,  German  in  Germany,  Englishman  in  London, 
melodist  for  the  Public,  fuguist  before  the  tribunal  of 
Father  Martini,  everywhere  the  great  genial  virtuoso 
and  composer.  This  was  Mozart  till  his  twenty-fifth 
year.  From  that  time  his  character  was:  propensity  to 


HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  251 

pleasure,  perseverance  in  musical  works;  during  day- 
time swarming  around  pretty  girls  and  women,  by 
night  sitting  at  the  piano  till  the  dawn  of  morning, 
careless  like  s  child,  unpractical,  indifferent  for  money, 
frank  without  reserve,  blindly  liberal.  He  passed  two 
years  in  Saltzburg  as  organist  of  the  cathedral;  after 
them  began  his  classical  period,  and  the  most  important, 
musical  revolution.  Charles  Theodore,  elector  of 
Bavaria,  gave  him  the  order  to  write  for  the  carnival 
of  Munich,  1781,  the  opera  seria  "Idomeneo,  king  of 
Greta."  The  bishop  granted  him  reluctantly  a  furlough 
of  six  weeks.  Now  he  saw  and  heard  nothing  more 
than  his  opera.  He  had,  in  Paris,  heard  Gluck's 
"Iphigenie"  with  ecstacy,  and  it  was  his  intention  to 
run  the  same  glorious  line.  He  worked  day  and  night. 
Only  when  tired  by  mental  and  physical  exhaustion, 
he  looked  for  restoration  in  the  family  of  Weber  (which 
since  had  moved  from  Manheirn  to  Munich,)  and  in 
the  modest  intercourse  with  Constance.  So  he,  rapidly, 
built  up  the  two  first  acts  of  the  opera.  The  enthusiasm 
with  which  critical  judges  of  music  received  them  sur- 
passed his  boldest  expectations.  Munich  was,  at  that 
time,  the  best  opera-house  and  had  the  ablest  orchestra. 
Mozart  was  happy;  he  had  presentiment  of  everlasting 
fame;  his  love  was  returned;  he  could  reasonably  hope 
to  be  appointed  and  then  to  marry  Constance — One 
morning,  when  he  had  passed  again  the  night  com- 
posing, and  just  thrown  the  pen  near  the  wet  notes,  his 
friend,  music  director  Cannabich,  entered,  crying:  "You 
are  not  ready,  and  in  half  an  hour  the  principal  re- 
hearsal ought  to  be  executed  in  the  presence  of  the  prince- 
elector  and  his  court/'  "Alas!  last  night  when 
I  came  home  from  Weber's,  I  was  so  inspired."  "  I 
can  imagine  it:  from  the  charming  eyes  of  Miss  Con- 


252  HISTORICAL  AND  BIOGRAPHICAL. 

stance.  You  were  too  excited  to  sleep,  and  worked 
all  night."  That's  so;  a  divine  idea  struck  me;  I  sub- 
joined still  a  chorus  to  my  opera."  He  jumped,  with 
these  words,  to  the  piano,  and  played  some  accords. 
"Splendid,  but  you  forget  again  the  elector,  and  the 
rehearsal.  Promise  me  to  work  never  more  during 
nights.  If  you  do  not  hear  me,  you  will  not  live  forty 
years."  The  rehearsal  succeeded  very  well,  and  was 
much  applauded  by  the  prince] and  his  companions. 

The  opera  was  performed  the  day  before  the  twenty- 
sixth  anniversary  of  the  birth-day  of  Mozart.  There 
was  never  such  a  full  house.  Crowds  of  audi- 
tors could  not  be  admitted.  The  overture  seized  all 
hearts,  and  elicited  a  general  applause  for  which  the 
prince  gave  the  signal  by  applauding  and  crying:  "bra- 
vo." When,  at  the  end  of  the  majestic  final  chorus  of 
the  first  act  the  curtain  was  let  down,  the  applause 
was  repeated.  The  last  scene  of  the  second  act  was  so 
grand  and  affecting,  that  the  whole  audience  arose,  as  it 
were  to  do  homage  to  the  powerful  genius  of  Mozart, 
like  to  one  who  rules  a  country.  Even  the  elector  had 
risen  and  leaned  over  the  parapet  of  the  lodge.  Not- 
withstanding this  immense  success,  the  excellence  of  the 
opera  was  still  enhanced  in  the  third  act.  Never  has 
a  composer  produced  a  more  accomplished  music.  At 
the  conclusion  of  the  opera,  such  a  storm  of  applause 
burst  forth  as  the  opera  house  of  Munich  never  had  ex- 
perienced. But  as  the  last  lamps  of  the  orchestra  were- 
extinguished,  Mozart  knelt  before  his  father  who  em. 
braced  him,  and  kissed  his  forehead;  and  at  both 
sides  of  him  /  stood  his  sister  Anne,  and 
Constance  Weber,  who  pressed  a  crown  of 
flowers  on  his  head,  and  blushing  lisped:  "To 
the  King  of  tones !"  Love  had  dictated  him  the  best 


HISTORICAL  A:NM>  BIOGRAPHICAL, 


•253 


pieces  of  the  opera,  and  at  the  piano  of  Constance,  he 
had  found  the  melody  of  an  air  sung  by  the  daughter  of 
Priam  us.  Mozart,  nevertheless,  did  not  get  an  appoint- 
ment in  Munich;  the  elector  was  short  of  money.  If 
he  had  dismissed  twenty-nine  of  his  thirty-five  physi- 
cians, and  three  fourths  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-five 
persons  in  his  kitchen,  he  should  have  been  able  to  ap- 
point, with  their  savings,  ten  Mozarts.  But  he  had 
plenty  of  money  for  his  mistress,  a  girl,  sixteen  years 
of  age;  her  toilet  was  fairy-like,  and  her  jewels  cost 
300,000  florins.  Mozart  received  for  his  Opera  hardly 
enough  to  cover  his  expenses  in  Munich;  therefore  he 
returned  home.  But  the  arch-bishop  treated  him  mean- 
ly. Mozart  should  take  his  meals  in  the  servants'  room 
with  the  attendants;  he  should  expect  the  orders  of  the 
bishop  every  day  at  ten  o'clock,  should  make  music  in 
his  apartments  afternoon,  and  in  the  evening,  present 
himself  for  every  concert  at  his  body  servant,  and  be 
shown  to  his  place  by  a  domestic.  Mozart  did  not 
obey,  but  requested  the  bishop,  who  snubbed  him,  to 
use  him  decently;  as  an  artist  deserves.  The  bishop,  de- 
ranged by  fury,  cried:  "An  artist?  A  fiddler,  that's 
what  you  are.  I  pay  you,  and  you  are,  for  that,  my 
servant."  "Never!  and  in  order  to  show  you  that  I 
am  not,  I  declare  that  I  shall  not  more  eat  in  the  ser- 
vants' room  and  with  the  attendants.  Respect  in  man 
the  man  and  artist."  "I  respect  you  like  a  knave,  like 
a  scoundrel,  like  a  rake."  Saying  this,  he  stretched  the 
clenched  fist  to  Mozart.  But  the  patience  of  the  artist 
was  exhausted,  he  resigned  his  position,  left  the  palace 
and  Salzburg  still  before  midnight,  and  went  to  Vienna. 
The  behavior  of  the  prelate  towards  Mozart  was  soon 
the  town -talk  of  this  place.  Mozart  felt  himself  happy 
In  the  midst  of  the  good-natured  inhabitants  of  the 


HISTORICAL    AND  BIOGRAPHICAL,. 


large  ciiy,  though  he  was,  sometimes,  melancholy,  be- 
cause his  appointment  was  out  of  the  question.  He 
gave  concerts  and  lessons,  and  wrote  sonatas  by 
means  of  subscription.  The  noblesse  gave  him  presents- 
and  jewels.  He  turned  Epicurean  and  spent  more,  than 
he  earned.  He  sent  to  his  old  father  now  and  then 
from  twenty  to  thirty  ducats  Li  order  to  make  his  life 
more  comfortable.  He  wooed  for  Constance,  who  lived, 
then,  also  in  Vienna;  but  her  mother  (the father  having 
died)  refused  him  decidedly,  till  he  would  be  settled. 
Mozart's  father  was  of  the  same  opinion.  Emperor 
Joseph  second  wished  that  his  people  should  more  high- 
ly appreciate  music,  because  it  is  cultivating  and  en- 
nobling the  mind.  Mozart  said  in  a  conversation  with, 
the  emperor:  "In  the  opera,  .dramatic  characteristic" 
must  supersede  the  artificial  subtleties;  the  opera  must 
be  enfranchised  from  the  sway  of  eunuchs;  nature,  life 
and  truth  must  replace  mad  flourishes;  musical  beauty, 
and  elevation  must  be  the  principal  aim  in  the  melodies 
of  the  composer;  then  we  shall  get  German  music,  and 
a  German  opera."  The  emperor  agreed  to  his  views, 
and  continued:  "I  will  break  the  yoke  of  the  Italians 
and  lay  the  foundation  of  a  national  opera.  Native 
singers  are  already  engaged.  You  will  be  their  di- 
rector. Here  I  ordered  to  write  a  nice  libretto.  'The 
elopement  from  the  seraglio;'  I  think,  Mozart  will  ele- 
vate it  to  the  highest  place  of  the  genuine,  German 
opera."  Who  was  happier  than  Mozart! 

As  soon  as  he  had  received  the  text  for  his  new 
opera,  he  went  right  away  to  study  it  in  the  same  night, 
for  he  could  not  think  of  sleeping.  All  things  pro- 
ceeded quick  with  him:  he  was  quick  thinking,  his  blood 
ran  so  quick  through  the  veins  that  the  heart  loudly 
throbbed  at  the  least  mental  excitement;  he  was  quick 


HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  255 

in  eating  and  drinking,  quick  in  speaking  and  smoking; 
he  dressed  quick  as  lightning;  even  when  he  washed 
his  hands,  he  walked  up  and  down  in  the  room,  and 
composed  by  heart  Hands  and  feet  were  always  in 
motion;  he  was  always  playing  with  something,  e.  g., 
with  the  watch-ribbon,  with  tables  and  chairs,  being  like 
the  piano.  But  quick,  infinitely  quick  was  he  also, 
when  composing.  Melody,  bass,  tenor,  they  all  sounded 
in  his  head,  first  confounded,  then  with  increasing  ex- 
actness, the  more  the  mind  turned  ear.  What  enjoy- 
ment, then,  was  the  preconceived  work,  when  it  made  its 
presence  before  him,  first  in  imagination!  But,  also, 
what  vibration  of  the  nerves,  what  consumption  of  the 
material  parts!  Must  this  mental  vampirism  not  have 
deadly  consequences?  Kind  reader!  You  shake  the 
head  and  say:  "Mozart  should  have  changed  this  way 
of  life."  To  be  sure!  But  was  he  able  to  change  it?  If 
he  had  been  able  to  do  so,  he  would  not  have  been  more 
Mozart,  the  ingenious  Mozart.  While  reading,  he 
sprang  up  here  and  there,  and  struck  some  accords  at 
the  piano,  or  played  right  away  the  melody  which,  dur- 
ing the  perusing,  flashed  like  lightning  through  his 
brain. 

He  hastened  to  Constance  immediately  in  the  morn- 
ing. She  warned  him  against  his  many  enemies  who 
had  told  to  her  mother  so  many  evil  reports  that  she 
was  decidedly  against  their  marriage.  She  advised  him 
to  be  more  careful  in  his  critiques  of  the  many  Italian 
singers  and  composers  in  Vienna;  she  cautioned  him, 
especially,  against  the  Italian,  Salieri,  director  of  the 
imperial  chapel  orchestra;  she  told  him  that  they  hated 
him,  his  compositions,  and  their  national  tendency,  and 
that,  being  unable  to  attack  him  as  a  composer  and 
piano-player,  they  cunningly  undermined  the  fame  of 


256  HISTOKICAL  AND  BIOGRAPHICAL. 

his  private  character,  slandering  him  as  a  spend-thrift 
and  wanton.  Mozart,  now,  confided  her  that  the  em- 
peror would  establish  a  German  opera,  and  put  him  at 
its  head,  and  showed  her  the  libretto,  saying:  "And 
you  and  I,  we  play  also  a  part  in  it;  only  read  the  text 
of  Belmonte  'If  my  loving  heart  throbs."  Now  Mozart 
sang  the  air  which  occurred  to  his  mind  in  this  moment, 
sprang  to  his  feet,  and  noted  the  musical  idea  fast  on  a 
fragment  of  music  paper.  "Love,"  he  said,  ''.-hall  dic- 
tate to  me  the  opera,  and  its  sweet  melodies  shall  un- 
close the  hearts  of  our  parents;  surely,  I  shall  be  di- 
rector of  the  German  opera,  which  I  ought  to  help  the 
emperor  to  establish.  Then  our  existence  is  saved,  and 
you  are  mine  forever." 

From  Constance  he  hastened  to  the  saloon  where  he, 
with  his  friends,  gave  himself  up  to  the  most  foolish 
freaks.  At  the  fourth  bottle  of  Champagne  he  cried: 
"Thunder  and  lightning!  Now  I  am  in  the  humor  to 
compose  the  drinking-duo,"  and  he  sang,  brandishing 
his  glass:  "Vivat  Bacchus,  Bacchus  was  a  brave 
man." 

His  enemies  continued  to  sap  his  reputation,  and  to 
prepossess  the  people  and  the  emperor  against  him 
Finally,  the  emperor  bade  to  call  Salieri  whom  he,  too, 
believed  to  be  Mozart's  best  friend,  and  ordered  him  to 
confess  freely  if  the  bad  rumors  which  circulated  against 
Mozart  were  true.  Salieri,  after  having,  for  a  while, 
seemingly  relucted,  replied:  "People  generally  say  that 
Mozart,  in  fact,  is  a  spend-thrift,  and  profoundly  in 
debts."  Salieri  triumphed,  for  he  was  sure  that  Mozart, 
according  to  his  simple  innocence  and  truly  German 
character  would  give  occasion  to  the  emperor  who  hated 
prodigality  most  of  all  vices  to  be  confirmed  in  his  bad 


HISTORICAL    AND    KIOG'RAPIIirAL.  257 

opinion  of  the  man,  and  Mozart  would  rush  into  his 
ruin. 

The  "elopement  from  the  seraglio"  was  played.  Long 
before  rumors  of  its  charming  music  had  filled  the  city. 
It  was  received  with  high  applause.  Most  of  the  pieces 
must  be  encored.  The  concourse  to  the  theater  was 
enormous;  the  opera  was,  in  fourteen  days,  repeated 
four  times. 

The  father  of  Mozart  finally  gave  his  permission  to 
th:  son  to  marry  Constance,  but  the  mother  persisted  in 
her  resolution.  Constance  shed  a  torrent  of  tears. 
^N"ow  Lange,  her  brother-in-law,  advised  Mozart  to 
imitate  ths  elopement  from  the  seraglio,  promising  him 
his  assitance.  This  plan  was  in  the  following  manner 
-executed.  Baroness  Waldstetten,  who  patronized 
Mozart  like  a  mother,  invited  the  mother  of  Constance 
.to  visit  her  at  her  estate.  She  sent  two  beautiful 
carriages.  One  took  Mozart  and  his  bride  to  the 
manor  of  the  baroness.  As  they  here  alighted,  the 
priest  was  already  waiting  for  them.  Meanwhile  the 
mother  of  Constance  arrived.  She  was  much  sur- 
prised as  she  beheld  the  priest  in  hi»  gown,  Mozart  and, 
at  his  side  her  daughter,  dressed  in  white,  and  a  myrtle- 
wreath  in  her  hair.  Both  fell  at  her  feet,  saying: 
"Dear  mother,  give  us  your  blessing,  for  we  love  each 
other  so  intimately,  and  cannot  more  live  alone."  The 
baroness  asked  also  the  mother  to  consent  to  their  wed- 
ing,  and  the  good  priest  added:  "That  what  God  joins 
man  ought  not  to  separate."  The  mother,  not  able  to 
resist  .any  longer,  exclaimed:  "Well,  in  God's  name, 
belong  to  each  other!"  putting  her  hands  upon  their 
heads.  A  princely  supper  in  the  house  of  the  baroness, 
followed  after  the  wedding  ceremony.  This  was  the 
most  beautiful  day  in  the  life  of  Mozart. 


til STO H  1C1  AL    A N D  BlOGIi A i ' J 1 i  <  A  L , 


Emperor  Joseph  left  him  also  without  any  employ 
inent.  if  he  was  tired  from  immoderate  exertion,  wine, 
punch,  and  senseless  amusements  should  restore  the  lost 
rigor  of  his  mind.  Constance  saw  well  enough  how 
his  health  was  impaired.  He  spent  more  money  than 
he  should  in  his  circumstances.  He  rented,  besides  his 
residence  in  the  city,  every  spring  a  country  seat,  took 
every  morning  a  ride,  and  stopped  in  the  saloon  longer 
than  he  ought  to  do.  There  were  sometimes  painful 
domestic  scenes;  Constance's  eyes  were  reddened  by 
tears.  He  worked  much  without  charging  a  cent  lor  it., 
by  mere  accomodation,  for  acquaintances  and  much 
more  for  friends;  he  interested  himself  for  destitute,, 
travelling  virtuosos,  he  composed  concerts  fo-r  themy 
and  shared  with  them,  dwelling,  board  and  money. 
He  was  abused,  stripped  and  cheated.  Some  debtors 
who  owed  him  hundreds  of  florins,  never  paid  him.  At 
that  time  he  composed  six  quartettes.  He  dedicated 
them  to  his  friend,  Joseph  Haydn,  who  declared  that  he 
acknowledged  Mozart  to  be  the  greatest  composer  whom 
he  had  ever  heard  of. 

Mozart  wrote,  by  order  of  the  emperor,  the  '^wedding 
of  Figaro,"  for  the  Italian  opera.  Finer  music  had 
hardly  ever  been  heard;  but  it  left  the  public  of  Vienna 
cold.  The  Italian  singers,  Salieri,  director  of  the 
orchestra  and  its  members  played  as  badly  as  possible. 
But  the  opera  was  liked  in  Prague  exceedingly  well. 
It  was  given,  during  the  whole  winter,  almost  without 
any  intermission.  The  enthusiasm  which  it  excited, 
was  unparralled.  A  Bohemian  cavalier  invited  Mozart 
to  come  to  Prague,  .and  offered  him,  in  his  residence, 
lodging,  board  and  every  comfort.  Mozart  came,  was 
received  with  exultation,  and  as  a  favorite  celebrated 
by  the  inhabitants.  He  promised  to  write  for  them  a 


HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  259 

new  opera,  and  to  deliver  it  next  winter.  It  should  be 
entitled  ''Don  Juan",  and  elaborated  according  to  the 
plan  of  Moliere's  comedy  of  the  same  name.  As  one 
of  his  admirers  remarked,  that  the  composition  would 
be  an  easy  work  for  a  genius  like  Mozart's,  he  replied: 
"Those  who  believe  that  I  acquired  my  art  so  easily 
are  much  mistaken;  I  assure  you  that  nobody  has  taken 
so  much  pain  in  the  study  of  composition  as  I;  there 
is  hardly  a  famous  master  of  music  whom  I  did  not 
assiduously  and  often  several  times  study." 

At  the  time  that  he  composed  Don  Juan,  an  Italian 
singer  who  called  herself  Mandini,  lived  in  Vienna. 
She  was  the  best  singer  of  Italy,  and  the  most  beautiful 
woman.  Mozart  met  her  in  a  company,  in  which  also 
emperor  Joseph  was  present,  who  wished  that  both  she 
and  Mozart,  should  give  to  the  company  a  specimen  of 
th^ir  art.  Mozart  recognized  her  to  be  the  Roman  girl 
whose  acquaintance  he  had  made  in  Italy,  when  she 
was  fourteen  years  old.  He  had  given  her  singing 
lessons,  and  she  owed  to  him  all  what  she  in  later  years 
became  and  earned.  They,  then,  loved  each  other. 
Now,  their  love  was  renewed. 

As  half  the  opera  was  finished,  Mozart  went  with 
Constance  to  Prague,  and  continued  the  work.  The 
singers  studied  their  parts  under  his  direction;  he 
directed  also  the  rehearsals  at  the  piano.  Several 
prominent  inhabitants  advised  him  to  arrange  concerts, 
offering  the  theater  for  his  disposition,  and  promising  to 
bear  all  expenses.  He  accepted  the  offering,  and  gave 
concerts  with  infinite  applause. — Mandini  followed 
Mozart  to  Prague,  and  continued  her  intercourse  with 
him;  she  desired  him  to  go  to  Italy  with  her;  but  he 
refused  it,  for  the  reason  that  he  had  a  good  wife  and 
children. 


rum 


260  HISTORICAL  AND  BIOGRAPHICAL. 


The  principal  rehearsal  succeeded  perfectly  well,  with 
the  exception  of  a  few  passages.  In  the  scene  where 
Don  Juan  kidnapped  Zerliue,  and  this  one  cries  for 
help,  Mozart  ordered  the  orchestrate  stop,  because  the 
cry  of  Zerline  was  not  right,  and  repeated  the  order 
three  times,  for  the  same  reason;  finally  he  jumped  up- 
on the  stage,  the  orchestra  recommenced,  and  he  posted 
himself  behind  Zerline,  and  as  the  moment  arrived  in 
which  she  should  cry  for  help  he  hugged  her  so  tightly 
and  boldly  that  she  screamed  from  fright,  in  a  natural 
way.  Now,  Mozart  was  satisfied,  and  the  music  con- 
tinued. The  other  passage  was  in  the  scene  as  the 
trumbonists  play  behind  the  monument  of  he  governor. 
Mozart  cried:  "The  trombones  are  wrong."  The  passage 
was  repeated,  but  he  interrupted  it  again,  saying:  "The 
bass  trombone  made  the  mistake."  He  explained  to  the 
players  how  he  wanted  him  to  play  the  passage.  But 
as  the  same  mistake,  at  the  third  repitition,  happened 
again,  he  cried  impatiently:  '-'The  devil,  sir!  play 
correctly!"  Now,  the  musician  getting  also  angry,  re- 
plied roughly:  "I  play  what  can  be  performed  on  the 
trombone;  but  the  devil  may  play  what  you  have 
written  here!"  Mozart  answered  kindly:  ''Well;  if 
what  I  wrote  is  not  fit  for  your  instrument:  I  must  change 
it,"  And  he  did  so  immediately. 

Don  Juan  w^as  written,  studied  and  rehearsed,  only 
the  overture  was  still  missing  eight  days  before  the 
term,  fixed  for  the  performance.  True,  it  was  ready  in 
his  mind,  to  the  last  note,  but  it  was  not  written  down, 
for  Mozart  hated  the  mechanical,  tedious  labor  of  copy- 
ing. He  consoled  himself  by  the  thought  that  his  won- 
drous memory  warranted  him  the  retention  of  every 
note.  Two  days  before  the  exhibition,  the  manager  of 
the  theater  required  the  overture.  Mozart  told  him  that 


HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRA'PHICA.L.  4t)J 

its  score  \vould  be  ready  earlv  on  the  dny  of  the  per- 
formance, and  that  the  copyist,  then,  should  fetch  it  at 
.seven  o'clock  in  the  morning.  He  thought  that  a  re- 
liearsal  was  not  wanted,  because  the  orchestra  of  Prague 
was  able  to  play  his  music  at  sight.  He  went,  without 
delay,  to  begin  the  work.  But  friends  called  for  an 
agreeable  party.  He  dropped  the  pen,  jumped  in  the 
•carriage,  and  passed  the  day  and  evening  in  their  com- 
pany; it  was  midnight,  as  he  returned.  He  would 
write,  but  was  so  exhausted  that  he  must  rest  some 
hours.  His  wife  awoke  him  at  five  o'clock,  and  two 
.hours  later,  as  the  copyist  entered  the  overture  of  the 
best  of  his  operas  was  ready.  The  parts  were  tran- 
scribed, and  at  six  o'clock  in  the  evening,  when  the  opera 
should  begin,  they  were  put,  still  covered  with  pounce, 
upon  the  music-stands  of  the  orchestra.  But,  unhap- 
pily, another  accident  chanced.  The  Prima  Donna 
had  felt  unwell,  the  day  before;  now,  when  the  players 
dressed  in  the  wardrobe  of  the  theater,  the  terrible  ti- 
dings were  reported  that  she  swooned,  as  she  would  step 
into  the  carriage.  The  manager  cried  despairingly: 
"All  is  lost.  We  cannot  give  the  opera!''  "Why  not?" 
asked,  in  this  moment,  a  sonorous  voice  in  the  pure 
idiom  of  Italian,  "The  part  of  Donna  Anna  is  familiar 
to  rne,  and  (lisping  to  the  ear  of  the  manager)  my  name 
is  Mandini."  Who  was  happier  than  he?  As  Mozart 
appeared  in  the  orchestra,  the  overcrowded  house  re- 
ceived him  with  thundering  acclamations.  The  over- 
ture commenced,  and  was  masterly  performed.  A >  it 
was  finished,  the  applause  would  not  cease,  for  it  was 
known  that  it  was  played  at  sight.  Mandini,  playing 
the  part  of  Donna  Anna,  stepped  forth.  What  a  voice! 
Such  tones  had  never  before  been  heard.  Mozart  rec- 
ognized her  in  a  moment,  and  thanked  her  in  his  mind 


HlStOfUC  AL    AND 


for  her  bold  feat.  As  if  the  orchestra  were  enchanted,,, 
all  outdid  themselves.  It  was  an  exhibition,  as  never, 
will  be  seen  more  by  the  world.  The  applause  increased 
with  every  number.  At  the  end  of  the  opera  all  were 
called,  Mozart  many  times.  "Where  is  she  who  saved 
us,"  cried  Mozart;  but  Mandini  had,  without  trace,  dis- 
appeared. Don  Juan  was  the  key  with  which  Mozart 
opened  forever  the  temple  of  his  glory.  His  sojourn 
in  Prague  forms  the  mo^t  lustrous  period  of  his  life. 

It  was  then,  that  Frederic  William  II.,  king  of  Prus- 
sia, ottered  him  the  directorship  of  the  opera  in  Berlin 
with  a  salary  of  3,000  Prussian  dollars;  he  did  not  ac- 
cept it,  because  he  preferred  the  Catholic  to  the  Protes- 
ant  religion,  and  jolly  Vienna  ':o  sober  Berlin.  He  con- 
tinued a  miserable  living.  He  had  entertained  the 
hope  of  help  by  Don  Juan;  the  manager  of  the  opera 
became  rich  by  it.  Mozart  obtained  one  hundred  ducats. 
It  was  to  be  reproduced  in  Vienna;  but  Salieri  arranged 
it  badly;  it  was  poorly  studied,  and  wilfully  badly 
played  by  the  Italians;  Salieri  triumphed.  The  former- 
distress  returned.  The  creditors  pressed.  Mozart  com. 
posed  a  new  opera:  "Cosi  fan  tutti"  for  the  Italian  the 
ater,  but  the  text  was  miserable;  the  work  had  no  last- 
ing success.  In  order  to  forget  his  sorrows  he  plunged 
himself,  surrounded  by  thoughtless  friends,  into  a  whirl- 
pool of  dissipation.  He  was  composing  during  the 
night;  he  broke  often  down.  Once,  when  he  came 
home  again  at  midnight,  seeing  the  eyes  of  Constance 
reddened  by  tears,  he  was  touched,  and  promised  to  her 
to  not  go  more  to  the  saloon.  She  besought  him  to  go 
to  bed;  he  did  not,  replying  that  he  felt  now  disposed 
to  compose,  and  had  promised  a  cantata  for  the  next 
evening.  But  he  could  have  been  able  to  compose  it 
with  ease  this  evening,  if  he  had  sooner  returned.  He 


HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  263 


wan  working  the  whole  night,  and  not  before  morning 
he  threw  himself  upon  the  bed;  he  shivered  a  little,  and 
had  headache.  In  the  evening  he  had  spent  twenty- 
one  florins — the  rest  of  all  his  money;  fourteen  florins 
in  the  saloon,  and  seven  for  a  box  of  sweet-meats  as  a 
present  for  Constance.  He  could  not  sleep;  sorrows  tor- 
mented him.  Suddenly  it  rushed  hotly  to  the  heart, 
then  to  the  breast  and  neck;  he  must  spit;  it  was  blood, 
much  blood.  His  head  sank  toward  the  breast,  and  he 
said:  "Thus  my  presentiment  was  correct;  I  shall  soon 
die."  He  became  silent,  remembered  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren, and  hot  tears  gushad  from  his  eyes. 

In  this  moment  entered  Schickancder,  owner  of  a 
theater  in  Vienna,  and  confessing  that  he  was  in  debts, 
almost  bankrupt,  requested  him  to  save  him  by  writing 
for  him  a  new  opera,  the  title  of  which  should  be  "The 
Enchanted  Flute."  He  would  write  the  text  for  it. 
Mozart  agreed,  and  promised  to  give  him  alone  the  score 
upon  condition  that  it  would  not  be  copied.  If  it  had 
good  success,  he  would  sell  it  to  other  directors. 
Schickaneder  promised  it. 

About  this  time  a  stranger  (it  Avas  a  count  Walsegg) 
handed  to  Mozart  a  letter  with  a  black  seal  in  which 
the  writer  asked  him  if  he  would  undertake  to  compose 
a  Requiem,  at  what  price,  and  till  when  it  would  be 
done.  Mozart  consented,  put  down,  as  usually,  very 
moderate  terms,  and  wished  to  know  where  he  should 
send  the  composition.  After  a  short  time  the  messenger 
made  again  his  appearance,  delivered  the  stipulated  fee 
and  promised  a  considerable  addition  to  it  when  the 
complete  score  would  be  delivered. 

He  was  also  offered  to  write  in  Prague,  for  the  cor- 
onation of  Leopold  II.,  the  opera  "La  Chemenza  di  Tito." 
He  took  the  offer,  though  a  very  short  term,  only  eigh- 


264  HISTORICAL  AND  BIOGRAPHICAL. 

teen  days,  were  accorded  for  its  composition.  He  con- 
ceived it  in  his  mind  during  the  journey,  while  seated  in 
the  wagon,  noting  the  ideas  on  leaflets  of  paper.  Wheu 
he  got  in  the  carriage,  the  haggard,  strange  messenger 
in  black  stood  again  before  him,  asking  laconically: 
"How  will  it  be,  uow,  concerning  the  Requiem?" 
Mozart  answered:  "I  cannot  defer  the  journey;  an  'en- 
gagement to  which  I  consented  calls  me  to  Prague. 
Say  to  the  unknown  gentleman  that,  after  the  return, 
the  Requiem  will  be  my  first  work."  The  messenger 
disappeared.  The  opera  made  little  impression;  it  was 
too  serious  in  consideration  of  the  many  amusements 
which  were  offered  to  the  people  during  the  festival. 

When  Mozart  had  returned,  he  went  on  to  finish  the 
Enchanted  Flute.  The  rumor  of  its  excellence  forerun 
its  presentation.  All  tickets  were  sold  eight  days  before 
it.  Its  success  was  unpredented  in  the  annals  of  Vienna 
The  music  was  incomparable,  speaking  to  all  hearts  in- 
telligibly. The  approval  increased  with  every  number. 
Thousands  who  stood  outside  of  the  house,  because  they 
could  not  enter,  repeated  the  applause  which  resounded 
within.  Returning  home  thousands  sung,  hummed, 
whistled,  on  the  road,  the  melodies  they  had  heard. 
The  success  of  the  Enchanted  Flute  was  unparalled. 
All  liked  to  see  it;  it  was  the  most  popular  music  Mo- 
zart had  written.  Now  came  the  turn  for  the  Requiem; 
he  did  not  permit  himself  some  days  of  rest,  saying:  UI 
write  it  for  myself.  I  feel  that  my  end  is  drawing  near. 
They  have  poisoned  me."  (He  imagined  that  he  was 
poisoned  by  Salieri,  his  musical  opponent).  He  wrote, 
now,  the  most  sublime  of  his  compositions  as  far  as  to 
the  "Sanctus";  then  he  felt  mortally  sick;  nevertheless  he 
continued  working,  communicating  the  leading  ideas  of 
the  rest  of  the  Sanctus,  the  Benedictus,  and  the  Agnus 


HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL.  205 

Dei,  to  Mr.  Sussmeier,  hi*  best  scholar,  who  was  seated 
at  his  bedside  writing  them  down, 

NOW,  one  of  the  first  stages  of  Germany  proposed  to 
appoint  him  director  for  its  orchestra,  and  so  did  the 
magistrate  of  Vienna,  for  the  cathedral;  but  he  ex- 
claimed: "It  is  too  late!  Now,  I  must  begone  while  I 
should  be  able  to  take  better  care  of  my  family;"  and 
he  sank  in  the  arms  of  his  wife,  mingling  his  tears  with 
hers,  and  bidding  her  to  fetch  the  children  to  his  bed. 
.She  brought  them,  the  babe  in  her  arms;  he  blessed 
them,  and  spake  to  her:  "Pardon,  my  dearest  wife'  if 
I,  sometimes,  caused  grief  to  you.  To  be  sure,  I  did 
not  mean  it;  I  loved  you,  nevertheless,  from  all  my 
heart.*'  He  sank  back  on  his  bed,  and  died.  It  was, 
at  midnight,  the  5th  of  December,  in  1791.  Lange, 
his  brother-in-law,  put  a  crown  of  laurel  upon  his  head. 

At  the  news  of  Mozart's  death  the  whole  city  came 
in  motion;  crowds  of  people  assembled  before  his  win- 
dows; messengers  of  the  noblest  families  came  to  hear 
the  report  of  the  sad  tidings.  They  spread,  the  same 
day,  to  south  and  north.  In  Prague,  all  bells  of  the 
parochial  church  were  rung,  and  the  spacious  building 
could  not  hold  all  the  people.  One  hundred  and  twenty 
musicians  executed  the  funeral  music,  and  many  who 
were  present  in  the  audience  shed  tears  of  friendship  and 
veneration.  Abbe  Stadler,  the  best  friend  of  Mozart, 
summoned  Schickaneder  to  fulfill  now  the  contract  he 
had  concluded  with  Mozart,  and  to  discharge  his  obliga- 
tion due  to  the  destitute  wife  and  children  of  the  de- 
ceased. But  this  person  protested  that  he  never  had 
made  a  contract  with  Mozart,  arid  had  no  obligations 
toward  his  family.  Stadler  and  other  friends  of  Mo- 
zart collected,  then,  contributions,  by  which  the  future 
of  the  widow  and  he  r  children  was  secured.  Bu 


266  HISTORICAL   AND  BIOGRAPHICAL, 


Schickaneder  grew  indebted  again,  and  died  poor  and 
in  disorder  of  mind.*  Two  of  the  five  children  of  Mo- 
zart survived  him;  the  youngest  one  had  good  musical 
talents,  and  became  music  director  in  Lemberg;  the  other 
was  attached  to  the  custom  office  in  Milan.  Mozart 
left  two  hundred  musical  works,  or,  (according  to  an- 
other biographer)  eight  hundred  for  piano,  and  many  for 
vocal  music.  As  an  opera-composer  he  stands  supe- 
rior to  all  his  predecessors.  In  1852  a  monument  was 
erected  to  him  in  Saltzburg. 
* 

An  other  biographer  of  Mozart,  reports  that  Schickander  has  paid  him 
reasonably  for  his  composition. 


1 


JAMES  A.  GARFIFLD. 


SECTION   FIFTH. 

ON  RELIGION. 


THE     THREE     SALVATION     CHURCHES— A 
LEGEND. 

(Translated  from  ''Louise,"  an  idyl  of  H.  Voss.) 

A  defunct  came  from  Mentz  to  the  gates  of  Heaven, 
was  boisterous,  and  cried:  "Open  the  door!"  St. 
Peter  softly  unlocked  the  door,  looked  forth  and  asked: 
"Who  art  thou  ?"  The  man  cried  defying  and  bran- 
dishing the  Indulgence  ticket:  "I  am  a  Catholic  Chris- 
tian, of  the  only  salvation-faith !"  Peter  replied: 
'•There  sit  down  on  the  bench  !"  and  locked  the  gates. 
Then  came  a  deceased  from  Geneva,  was  boisterous  and 
cried:  "Open  the  door !"  The  disciple  asked:  "Who 
art  thou?"  "I?  I  am  a  Calvanistic  Christian,  of  the 
only  salvation-faith."  "There,  on  the  bench,"  cried 
Peter.  Now  came  also  a  defunct  from  Hamburg,  was 
boisterous  and  cried:  "Open  the  door!  "  The  disciple- 
asked  again:  "Who  art  thou?"  "I?  I  am  a  Lutheran 
Christian,  of  the  only  salvation-faith."  "There  on  the 
bench,"  cried  Peter,  and  shut  the  gates. 

Now,  the  adversaries  sat  peaceably  by  each  other's 
side,  and  saw,  in  quiet  admiration,  suns  and  moons  and 
stars,  though  seemingly  wandering  astray,  in  a  regulated 
unanimous  dance.  They  heard,  also,  the  jubilant  songs 


270  ON    RELIGION. 


of  the  blissful  nations  and  angels  harmoniously  resound 
in  a  chorus  of  many  voices,  and  they  inhaled  the  odors 
of  life.  Their  hearts  flowed  over  from  ineffable  fervor 
and  they  sung  in  ecstacy:  "We  believe  all  in  one  God!" 
Suddenly  the  gates  flew  open  with  loud  sound,  so  that 
the  ether  far  off  shone  in  golden  splendor.  Peter  came 
in  sight,  and  said  with  gracious  smiles:  "Now,  foolish 
children,  did  you  reflect?  Well,  come  on!" 

MORAL. — Tolerate  each  other  brotherly!  Banish 
the  infernal  pestilence  of  intolerance  to  hell! 

CRITIQUE  OF  REVELATIONS. 

The  believer  calls  the  instruction  which  is  given  him 
(as  he  thinks)  by  any  deity,  a  REVELATION.  There 
are  many  revelations,  e.g.,  a  Christian,  a  Jewish,  a  Ma- 
hommedan,  a  Mormon;  every  believer  thinks  his  re- 
ligion to  be  the  true — the  genuine;  but  Fichte,  the 
German  philosopher,  demonstrated,  in  one  of  his  writings 
that  such  an  opinion  is  superstition. 

:.THE  MESSENGERS  OF  THE  REVELATIONS. 

Greeks  and  Romans  ascribed  their  revelations  to  gods 
or  demi-gods;  Numa  Pompilius,  king  of  Rome,  to  the 
nymph  Egeria,  the  Bactrians  to  Zoroaster,  the  Hin- 
dostans,  many  Chinese,  and  other  people  of  Asia,  to 
Buddha,  the  Jews  to  Jehovah,  the  Christians  to  Christ, 
the  Mohammedans  to  Mohammed.  But  who  believes 
now-a-days,  that  Numa  Pompilius  received  his  state 
religion  from  a  nymph,  or  Moses  the  ten  command- 
ments from  Jehovah,  on  the  mount  of  Sinai,  or  Moham- 
med the  koran  from  the  archangel  Gabriel? 

ALL  DEITIES  ARE  PERSONAL  GODS. 

Schiller  says:  "Man  is  reflected  in  his  deities."  Men 
attribute  to  their  gods  their  own  qualities,  espe- 


RELIGION,  271 


•dally  those  which  they  most  esteem.  The  stamp  of 
ihuman  nature  is  also  imprinted  on  the  face  of  the 
Mosaic  religion;  for  "God  created  man  according  to  his 
image."  Therefore,  as  all  revelations  are  infected  with 
the  fundamental  error  of  a  personal  deity,  they  can 
not  claim  a  divine  origin, 

THE  ARGUMENTS  ON  WHICH  THE  BELIEVERS  RELY 
ARE  ERRuNEOUS. 

The  followers  of  revelations  place  their  belief  in  them, 
because  they  think  that  their  messengers  were  honest 
and  highly  respected.  Besides,  several  of  them  proved 
their  divine  mission  by  miracles  which  they  performed, 
But  a  sound  critique  answers  to  the  second  argument 
the  followmg:  The  miraculous  stories  are  contained  in 
the  same  books,  as  the  revelations.  The  demonstration 
of  the  believer  runs  about  this  way:  "I  believe  that 
the  miracles  are  true  because  they  are  narrated  in  the 
book  of  the  revelation."  Here,  the  truth  of  the  revela- 
tion is  supported  by  wonders,  and,  inversely,  the  truth 
of  the  wonders  by  the  sanctity  of  the  revelation.  Here- 
by  the  argument  moves  in  a  circle.  To  illustrate,  let 
us  apply  it  to  the  revelation  of  Mohammedan  believers 
that  the  Koran  is  a  divine  document,  because  is  stated 
in  it  that  Mohammed  has  received  it  from  the  arch* 
angel  Gabriel.  But  who  does  warrant  him  the  truth 
of  this  statement?  He  answers:  "The  Koran!"  There- 
fore, he  supposes  that  the  divine  origin  of  the  book 
which  he  ought  to  prove  by  the  miracle  is  al- 
ready proved.  Now,  as  the  story  of  Gabriel 
is  a  myth,  the  divine  authority  of  the  Koran 
falls  also  down. 

WHICH  OF   THE  MANY  REVELATIONS  IS  THE  TRUE  ONE? 

Moreover,  how  many  revelations  were  given?  The 
Hebrews  received  one  about  one  thousand  five  hundred 
years  before  Christ;  the  Romans  seven  hundred  and 


2T2'  (5>i5r 


thirty,  the  Bactrlans  six  hundred  and  nine,  the 
Indians  two  ages  later.  The  Christians  even  possess 
two,  the  Mohammedans  and  Mormons  three  revelations- 
Which  one  of  these  is  the  true,  the  genuine? 

THE  LANGUAGE-  IN  WHICH  THE  REVELATIONS  ARE   WRITTEN. 
IS  NOT  UNDERSTOOD. 

With  the  Jews  Jehovah  spoke  Hebrew;  but  this  lan- 
guage was  already  out  of  use,  at  least,  when  they  re- 
turned to  their  country  from  the  captivity  in  Babylon. 
The  books  of  the  New  Testament  were  most  part  writ- 
ten in  the  Greek,  partly  in  the  Hebrew  language,  and 
the  sacred  books  of  the  East  Indians  in  Sanscrit,  which 
is  now  a  dead  Inguage,  so,  these  revelations  were  pro- 
mulgated in  languaages,  which  could  or  cannot  be  under- 
stood by  the  men  for  whom  they  were  designed.  In 
order  to  get  acquainted  with  such  revelations,  only  two* 
ways  are  left  to  men:  Either  they  must  themselves 
study  the  foreign  languages,  or  let  them  be  interpreted 
by  others.  The  first  way  is,  to  the  most,  inaccessible,, 
because  they  lack  talents,  time  and  opportunity  for  so 
difficult  studies;  consequently,  only  the  second  remains 
to  them,  they  want  translators  and  the  caste  of  priests. 
But  who  warrants  them,  even  in  this  case,  that  these 
persons  communicate  to  them  the  revelations  pure,  un- 
adulterated and  correct?  The  doctrine  of  the  holy  sup- 
per of  the  Christians  has  got  already  hundred  different 
interpretations,  as  we  are  told;  which  of  all  is  the  right? 
No,  if  you  are  sure  that  your  salvation  depends  of  the 
belief  in  your  revelation,  you  must  not  rely  even  on  the 
authority  of  a  father. 

THE  CONTENTS  OF  TEE  REVELATIONS. 

I  come  now  to  the  contents  of  the  revelations;  we 
must  consider  them,  if  we  will  form  a  correct  opinion  of 
the  later  ones;  for  the  master  is  recognized  by  his  work. 


ON    RELIGION.  273 

Most  of  the  revelations  contain  a  theory  on  the  origin 
of  the  world.  Charles  Frederic  Koppen  gives  us  such 
a  one  from  the  religion  of  Buddha;  I  quote  his  words: 

COSMOGONY    OF  BUDDHA. 

"Brama,  or  the  soul  of  the  world,  does  not  create  the 
world,  but  develops  into  it;  but  while  he  unfolds  him- 
self into  it,  he  removes  from  himself,  and  the  more  he 
removes,  the  more  dissimilar  he  becomes  of  himself,  the 
worse  the  Brama-substance  turns.  In  this  manner  a 
series,  a  scale  of  more  or  less  perfect  realms  or  creatures 
originates.  Therefore,  Nature  issues  and  consists  mere- 
ly in  the  removal  and  alienation  from  God,  he)  ice  it  is 
perishable,  full  of  sin,  life  an  abyss  of  sin,  earth  a  vale 
of  tears."  It  must  be  objected  against  this  theory  that 
the  substance  of  the  soul  of  the  world  must  be  spiritual, 
therefore  is  not  extended  in  space,  consequently  cannot 
develop  itself  into  the  world  which  is  material  and  ex- 
tensive. Moreover  experience  contradicts  the  view  that 
earth  is  a  vale  of  tears.  But  the  whole  theory  of  Budd- 
hism is  so  insipid  that  critique  could  meddle  no  more 
with  it.  Let  us,  therefore,  pass  to  the  cosmogony  of  the 
other  more  modern  revelations. 

COSMOGONY  OF  OTHER  REVELATIONS. 

Their  fundamental  idea  is  that  Jehovah,  or  God,  or 
Allah  has  created  the  world  from  nothing.  Feuer- 
bach,  in  his  renowned  work  "Essence  of  Christianity" 
says:  "They  are  shocked  at  the  eternal  independent 
existence  of  the  world,  because  they  consider  it  only 
from  the  subjective,  practical  standpoint,  not  in  its 
majesty,  as  Kosmos.  In  the  inmost  ground  of  mind, 
they  will  have  no  world,  for  where  the  world  is,  there  is 
urgency,  shock;  its  end  is  always  waited  for."  The 
first  Christians  already  expected  its  destruction,  for  after 


274  ON    RELIGION. 


it,  the  new,  heavenly  kingdom  of  the  Messiah  should 
begin  in  which  they  hoped  to  enjoy  eternal  bliss  and 
glory.  All  Christians  hope  for  "a  new  heaven  and  a 
new  earth,"  because  their  revelations  promised  it  to 
them. 

Farther,  the  doctrine  of  Providence,  prayer  and  laith 
constitutes  a  principal  part  of  the  revelations. 

PROVIDENCE  OF  THE  REVELATIONS. 

The  Koran,  in  regard  to  Providence,  wanders  so  tar 
beyond  the  bounds  of  common  sense  that  it  assures  its 
confessors  that  they  could  careless  fight  amidst  the 
densest  shower  of  bullets,  without  being  hit,  if  Allah 
has  not  predestined  their  death.  But  even  suppose 
that  he  has  decreed  to  let  them  perish  in  combat,  they 
would,  forthwith,  rise  from  the  dead,  and  be  recom- 
pensed, in  paradise,  by  possession  of  the  most  beautiful 
houris  and  by  other  sensual  pleasures. 

The  Providence  of  the  Biblical  revelation  is  also  an- 
other than  the  natural.  The  natural  Providence  let 
man  sink  in  water  aud  drown,  if  he  knows  not  how  to 
swim;  but  the  Biblical  heaps  up  the  floods  of  the  sea 
like  walls,  and  let  its  favorites  pass  with  dry  feet.  The 
animal  has  no  other  Providence  but  its  organs;  but  by 
means  of  Biblical  Providence,  a  raven  brought  to  Elias 
food  in  the  desert,  and  Elisha  kept  the  i-il-cruet  of  the 
pious  widow  always  filled.  If  a  man  believes  that  he 
has  no  other  Providence  than  the  forces  of  his  species, 
the  faithful  ones  think  him  to  be  impious,  because  he 
does  not  believe  but  in  a  natural  Providence.  If,  then, 
the  Providence  which  shows  itself  in  the  organs  of  catch- 
ing, is  a  truth,  the  Providence  of  the  revelation  must 
be  an  untruth.  How  Nature  contradicts  revelation! 
Revelation,  how  contradicts  it  Nature!  The  God  of 
Nature  reveals  himself  therein  that  he  gave  to  the  lion 


()"K    RELIGION. 


;teeth  and  claws  m  order  to  devour,  if  necessary,  even 
men.  But  the  God  of  the  revelation  conserves  one  of 
-liis  favorites  in  the  lions'  den,  amidst  the  hungry  nion- 
•sters. 

PRAYER  OF  Til E    M  E V E  L  A  TIOXS. 

Another  important  article  of  faith  of  the  revelations 
is  prayer.  A  man  who  convinced  himself  that  every 
effect  must  have  a  cause;  that  a  wish  can-no *;  be  fulfilled 
but  if  we  give  it  the  scope,  and  choose  the  correspond- 
ing means;  such  a  man  does  not  pray,  he  only  works 
He  suppresses  such  desires  as  he  knows  to  be  subjective 
ones,  or  considers  them  merely  as  pious  wishes;  in  a 
word,  he  limits  and  conditions  his  essence  by  the  laws 
of  the  system  of  the  world,  his  wishes  by  the  necessity 
of  things.  Prayer  changes  the  course  of  Nature.  If 
praying,  man  addresses  himself  to  the  omnipotence  of  a 
benevolent  being,  adores  his  own  heart,  his  desires. 

FAITH  OF  THE    REVELATIONS. 

But  the  most  striking  fea  ture,  in  the  system  of  the 
three  youngest  revelations,  is  faith, — BLIND  FAITH. 
Their  followors  are  obliged  to  believe  the  most  incom- 
prehensible, absurd  doctrines,  for  they  are  said  to  be 
the  emanation  from  the  eternal,  infallible  Truth.  Ac- 
cording to  them,  there  is  no  greater  sin  than  unbelief. 
It  is  expressly  commanded  in  the  Koran,  to  annihilate 
the  infidels  by  fire  and  sword,  and  in  the  Old  Testament, 
to  extirpate  entirely  Ammonites,  Moabites,  and  other 
nations  who  lived  near  the  Hebrews.  In  the  New 
Testament  Christ  says:  "I  did  not  come  to  bring  peace, 
but  the  sword."  And  St.  Paul  teaches:  "If  somebody 
preaches  you  another  gospel  than  I  do,  and  if  he  were 
an  angel  of  heaven;  he  be  damned!"  History  test i lies 
that,  according  to  the  commandments,  of  these 


ON  RELIGION 


lations,  Jews,  Mohammedans  and  Christians  have- 
destroyed  millions  of  human  lives. 

Granted  that  times  have  become  milder,  but  to  whom 
do  we  owe  them?  To  be  sure,  not  to  the  faith  of  the 
revelations:  no,  to  the  skeptics,  the  free-thinkers,  the 
heretics.  The  infidel  is  even  in  our  century  still  hunted, 
shunned  like  a  leper,  and  persecuted  by  the  faithful, 
ones.  The  newest  history  of  religion  supplies  proofs 
If  the  assertion,  from  Lessing  and  Thomas  Paine  to  the 
oresent  day,  and  the  infidels  are  solely  indebted  to  the 
pberal  laws  of  our  country  that  the  believers  in  the 
revelations  do  not  dare  to  renew  the  auto-da-  fes  of  the 
middle  ages. 

These  few  statements  of  the  revelations  may  suffice. 
He  who  would  examine  their  doctrine  completely,  must 
write,  for  this  purpose,  quite  a  book;  still  it  follows  even 
from  these  few  remarks  that  their  contents  can  not 
stand  the  trial  of  a  divine  revelation  before  the  tribunal 
of  critique. 

THE    WILDEN8PUCH    TRAGEDY    IN    I>ETAIL. 

About  1820,  a  rather  wealthy  farmer,  whose  name 
Was  Peter,  lived  in  Wildenspuch,  Canton  Zurich,  Swit- 
zerland. His  son  and  daughters  helped  him,  as  well 
as  they  could,  to  cultivate  his  fields  and  vineyards; 
peace  and  success  was  in  the  home,  as  long  as  his  wife 
lived.  But  soon  after  her  death,  the  man  turned  out  a 
little  melancholy,  and  joined  the  community  of  the 
United  Brethren  who  held  regular  meetings  in  the 
neighboring  village.  The  consequences  of  this  inter- 
course soon  were  obvious.  The  sou,  Caspar,  a  lewd, 
deceitful  and  thievish  fellow,  wandered  about  in  the 
country  as  a  missionary  of  penitence.  The  two  car- 
ried sisters,  Barbara  ard  Margaret,  succeeded  to  induce 


ON    RELIGION.  277 

their  husbands  to  join  with  the  United  Brethren.  The 
good-natured  oldest  sister,  Susan,  was  persuaded  to  fol- 
k»w  the  suggestions  of  the  two  others.  Margaret  had  a 
precocious  mind,  and  her  intellect  was  superior  to  that 
of  her  sisters. 

As  the  United  Brethren  were  bound  by  severe  rules, 
and  did  not  spare  penances  and  punishments,  the  fam- 
ily of  Peter  was,  after  some  months,  displeased  with 
their  community,  and  formed  a  sect  of  their  own,  headed 
by  Margaret  who  performed  the  part  of  a  saint.  She 
made  missionary  excursions  from  near  and  afar,  and 
succeeded  to  gather  quite  a  flock  of  credulous  adherents. 
But  what  happened:  Margaret  retires  to  the  house  of 
a  believer,  stay^  there  several  months,  and  finally  is  de- 
livered from  a  child!  Her  host  pretends  that  his  wife 
has  born  the  child,  and  the  Saint  returns  home. 

Now,  all  inhabitants  in  the  house  of  Peter,  the  male 
and  female  servant  included,  begin  to  act  like  insanes; 
they  imagine  to  perceive  apparitions,  to  see  the  devil 
jumping  around  etc.  All  agree  that  the  devil  must  be 
exercised;  they  take  bammers  and  clubs,  and  demolish 
the  floor,  The  next  day  the  Saint  comes  forth,  and 
orders  the  present  ones,  to  strike  each  other  with  ham- 
mer and  club.  Barbara  lies  down  on  the  bed,  and 
they  knock  her  skull  in;  then  the  Saint  commands  that 
she  also  must  be  killed  by  crucifying  her,  and  asserts 
that  in  three  days,  she  and  her  sister,  will  rise  again. 
Margaret  had  ordered,  besides  her  sisters  and  brother- 
in-law,  Ursula  Kundig  to  meet  in  the  room.  This 
maiden  used  to  be  present  at  the  prayers  of  the  sect, 
and  finally  remained  in  the  house;  she  had  joined  the 
sect  by  excessive  zeal  of  religion. 

When  Barbara  was  dead,  she  was  laid  on  the  floor, 
and  Margaret  mounts  the  bed,  and  orders  to  gather  the 


278  OX    RELIGION. 


scattered  laths,  and  to  put  them  in  the  form  of  a  cross, 
under  her  body;  two  blocks  of  wood  are  pnt  under  her 
feet;  then  she  orders  to  fetch  nails,  and  as  they  are 
brought  she  bids  them  to  drive  the  nails  to  her  hands, 
elbows,  breast  and  feet.  They  do  so.  As  she  was 
fastened,  thus,  to  the  cross,  she  bade  Ursula  Kundig  to 
dispatch  her  wholly.  Her  brother  had  to  help  her. 
While  both  knocked  in  the  skull  of  the  Saint,  she  cried: 
"Rejoice  with  me,  God  also  rejoices  in  Heaven  with 
you;  it  is  necessary  that  the  souls  be  saved  which  long 
enough  have  been  in  the  thraldom  of  Satan."  She  had, 
under  the  strokes,  expired  in  a  few  moments.  This 
horror  happened  in  the  night  of  the  15th  of  March,  in 
1823. 

As  the  Saint  and  her  sister  did  not  rise  on  the  third 
day,  her  father  went  to  the  parsonage,  and  reported  the 
news  of  their  death.  Eleven  of  the  culprits  were  sen- 
tenced to  the  penitentiary.  It  was  easy  work  for  the 
State  Attorney  to  convince  the  Court  that  all  had  suf- 
fered from  disorder  of  mind.  The  house  of  Peter  was 
demolished,  and  forbidden  to  erect  another  building  on 
its  place.  The  corpses  were  buried  in  Zurich. 

But  the  true  sinner,  who  had  made  all  these  people 
insane,  freely  evaded;  it  was  a  Mr.  Ganz  who  had  first 
studied  theology,  than  joined  a  sect,  and  met  Barbara 
on  by-ways.  At  the  time  of  the  crucifixion  of  the  sis- 
ters he  stopped  in  Basel. 

OLD  AND  NEW  FAITH. 

A     PERSONAL    GOB. 

According  to  the  old  Faith,  God  is  a  personal  being; 
he  acts  like  any  man,  an  oriental  monarch.  He  looks 
for  Adam,  and  calls  him;  he  does  not  know,  where  he 
stays;  he  kneads  the  first  man  from  clay;  he  walks,  in 


RELIGION, 


I 


-the  evening,  in  the  cool  garden,  converse*  with  Adam 
and  Eve,  makes  them  coats  etc.  This  notion  of  God 
was  prevalent  among  the  Jews,  They  enlarged  it; 
they  attributed  to  their  Jehovah  jaw-bones  and 
powerful  teeth,  with  which  he  crushes  his  adversaries, 
and  let  him  move  along,  in  the  tempest,  upon  the  wings 
•of  the  Cherubim.  The  Christians  split  his  substance 
in  three  parts  which  they  called  father,  son  and  holy 
ghost,  but  imagined  that  these  parts  form  one  totality. 
They  belivcd  and  still  believe  that  a  son  to  the  father 
was  born,  whom  not  himself,  but  the  holy  ghost  had 
generated,  that  the  mother  of  his  son,  after  the  con- 
ception, continued  to  be  a  virgin;  that  the  God-son 
\vas  crucified  and  killed,  yet  after  three  days  revived, 
and  ascended  to  Heaven. 

Modern  thinkers  assert  that  man  cannot  form  an  idea 
of  the  la  t  cause  of  the  existing  things,  because,  other- 
wise, he  himself  must  be  God.  They  teach:  All  hu- 
man knowledge  is  derived  from  experience  and  Nature, 
but  eternal,  unalterable  laws  govern  Nature  upon  which 
all  phenomena  depend.  The  universe  is  eternal  and 
infinite;  its  matter  and  forces  can  only  develop  and 
change,  but  net  perish.  How  it  exists  is  a  mystery 
which  the  human  mind  never  will  find  out. 

ORIGIN    OF    THE    WORLD. 

Concerning  the  origin  of  the  world,  the  ancient  opin~ 
ion  was  that  God  created  all  things  in  six  days.  Ge- 
ology (a  modern  science)  teaches  that  earth  by  degrees 
•developed,  that  millions  of  years  may  have  passed  awav 
till  she  arrived  at  her  present  utate;  that  animals  and 
plants  were  not  created,  but  unfolded  from  cells;  (hut 
first,  animals  originated  which  live  in  water;  later, 
pi  ant-eaters  made  their  appearance;  that  whenever  the 
surface  of  the  earth  experienced  a  new,  general  change. 


o.V 


most  of  the  existing  organisms  perished,  and  more  per- 
fect ones  took  their  place. 

AGE    OF    MANKIND    AND  OF    THE    UNIVERSE. 

Geology  teaches  also  that  mankind  is  much  older 
than  the  followers  of  the  old  faith  believe,  that  what 
the  monuments  of  architecture,  sculpture,  painting  and. 
the  hieroglyphs  prove  which  were  found  in  Egypt, 
Babylon  and  India,  and  since  more  than  five  thousand 
years  are  extant.  And  in  regard  to  the  age  of  the  uni- 
verse generally,  it  is  asserted  that  it  never  was  created,, 
but  exists  from  eternity,  which  opinion,  also  Greek  and 
Roman  philosophers  confessed. 

DIVINE    PROVIDENCE. 

With  regard  to  the  conservation  and  government  of 
the  universe,  the  views  of  ancient  a:dd  modern  times 
also  differ  much.  According  to  the  former,  God  con- 
serves and  governs  all  things,  and  his  Providence  espe- 
cially takes  care  of  his  believers;  and  Jesus  Christ 
taught  his  followers:  "Take  no  thought  for  your  Me, 
what  ye  shall  eat,  or  drink;  nor  get  for  your  body,  what 
ye  shall  put  on.  Behold  the  fowls  of  the  air,  for  they 
sow  not,  neither  do  they  reap,  nor  gather  into  barns; 
yet  your  Heavenly  father  feedeth  them." — Matthew 
vi,  25-26.  But  modern  view  is  different;  it  does  not 

believe  in  wonders,  but  in  unvariable  laws  of  Nature 
which  permit  no  exceptions,  but  work  as  thousands  of 
years  before,  always  in  the  same  way.  It  does  not  be- 
lieve that  God,  for  the  sake  of  his  darlings,  annuls  some 
of  those  laws,  it  teaches  that  man  must  make  use  of  the 
faculties  which  Nature  granted  to  him  in  order  to  con- 
serve himself.  "Help  yourself,  and  God  will  help  you," 
says  the  American  proverb.  It  asserts  that  prayers  for 


281 


lengthening  life,  for  health,  riches,  a  good  harvest,  vic- 
tories, and  other  blessings  are  useless  and  foolish. 

THE  BIBLE. 

One  time  the  Bible  was  considered  to  be  the  revela- 
tion of  God,  nay  some  Christians  went  so  far  as  to  be- 
lieve that  every  word,  every  letter  of  this  book  was  dic- 
tated to  its  authors,  by  the  holy  ghost.  This  opinion 
prevailed  till  to  the  epoch  of  Reformation,  and  as  the 
Reformers  contested  the  authority  of  the  popes  and 
Councils,  they  took  hold  so  much  closer  cf  the  faith  in 
the  Bible,  for  this  book  was,  since,  the  only  fountain  of 
their  faith.  By  and  by  the  natural  sciences  awoke 
from  their  deep  sleep;  men  of  learning  commenced  to 
study  botany,  zoology,  geology,  chemistry,  astronomy 
and  the  oriental  languages;  the  Protestants  investigated 
assiduously  the  Bible,  because  they  were  directed  to  it 
alone,  discovered  contradictions,  in  it,  against  the 
natural  sciences,  and  began  to  doubt  its  divine  origin. 
Already  towards  the  end  of  the  last  century,  the  mira- 
cles of  the  old  and  new  Testament,  especially,  puzzled 
them.  First  they  tried  to  reconcile  the  contradictions 
between  them  and  the  sciences  which  they  met  with. 
The  theologians  who  tried  this  method,  and  their  fol- 
lowers were  called  Rationalists.  But  not  satisfied  writh 
this,  compromise,  the  opponents  of  the  Biblical  wonders 
grew  bolder,  till  Dr.  David  Strauss  (about  1830) 
proved  that  their  tales  are  nothing  than  pious  myths 
which  deserve  no  more  credit  than  those  of  the  Greek 
and  Roman  religion.  The  result  of  all  these  efforts 
was  the  new  view  that  the  Bible,  like  other  books,  must 
submit  to  be  examined  and  criticised  according  to  the 
rules  of  historic  criticism,  and  even  run  the  risk  that, 
by  such  a  proceeding,  some  weak  sides  and  errors 
against  the  doctrine  of  the  empirical  sciences  should  be 


282  ON    RELIGION. 


discovered  in   it.     Thereby  the  prestige  of  its  divine 
origin  was  undone. 

MAN. 

The  origin  of  man  is,  in  the  Bible,  related  in  this 
way:  God  took  a  piece  of  clay ,  formed  a  human  body 
of  it,  and  blew  his  breath  into  it.  So  the  first  man  was 
created.  The  origin  of  the  first  woman,  Eve,  occurred 
otherwise.  Jehovah  let  Adam  fall  asleep,  took  a  rib, 
during  his  sleep,  from  his  body,  filled  up  the  empty 
place  with  flesh,  and  molded  the  woman  out  oi  the  rib. 
This  silly  story  was  repudiated  by  science,  long  ago, 
and  the  greatest  naturalists  of  our  age  incline  toward 
the  opinion  that  man  must  have  originated  in  a  similar 
way  as  other  animals,  and  very  likely,  descends  from  a 
class  of  animals  which,  in  perfection,  was  next  to  him, 
but  became  extinct  long  ago. 

HUMAN  MIND. 

That  breath  which  God  blew  into  the  first  man,  was, 
once,  called  soul.  Namely,  people  believed  that  man 
consists  of  two  parts,  one,  the  material,  which  is  called 
the  body,  and  an  immaterial,  the  soul.  Death  separates 
this  from  that  one,  and  the  soul  is  either  taken  to 
Heaven  and  eternal  bliss,  or  to  hell  and  everlasting 
torment.  In  conformity  with  modern  doctrine,  the 
sensual  organs  and  the  brain  are  the  medmms  of  all 
notions,  feelings  and  actions  of  man.  The  brain  is,  es- 
pecially, the  abode  of  human  mind.  The  matter  of  the 
human  body  is  imperishable  like  the  material  of  the 
universe;  not  the  smallest  particle  of  the  body  perishes; 
so  far  man  is  immortal.  But  is  the  human  mind  also 
immortal?  This  question  is,  since  the  middle  of  our 
century,  decidedly  denied  by  many  prominent  philoso- 
phers; others  think  that  there  cannot  any  decisive  ar- 


'guments  be  adduced,  either  for  or  against  it.  In  my 
opinion,  immortality  of  man  is  out  of  the  question,  be- 
cause his  mind  cannot  more  be  efficacious  when  its 
foundations,  the  senses  and  nerves,  are  destroyed.  uCes- 
sante  causa,  cessat  effectus."  (If  the  cause  ceases,  the 
effect  also  ceases). 

Man  elevated  himself  from  the  lowest  degree  of  rude- 
•ness  to  the  present  hight  of  civilization.  He  can  rise 
only  by  education  in  the  family  and  in  the  State  to  the 
.highest  station  of  perfection. 

WHAT  ARE  THE  DOGMAS  OF  THE     BIBLE  "  STILL    WORTH 
TO    OUR    Af-JE. 

It  is  the  object  of  this  essay  to  examine  closer  one  of 
the  most  important  parts  of  the  Bible,  the  dogmas,  pro- 
pounded in  it  as  the  foundation  of  Christianity,  and  to 
show  what  this  book,  considered  from  this  side,  still  is 
worth  to  our  age.  Only  the  most  impressive  doctrines, 
in  which,  all  Christian  sects  agree,  shall  be  mentioned. 

WHAT  NOTION  OF  GOD  DOES  THE  BIBLE  REPRESENT. 

What  idea  of  God  does  the  Bible  exhibit?  Its  God 
essentially  resembles  man.  He  molds  clay,  like  a  potter; 
he  sows,  like  a  tailor,  and  takes  a  walk,  like  an  oriental 
prince,  in  the  shade  of  the  trees!  What  does  the  Bible 
teach  of  his  character?  In  time  of  the  Exodus  of  the 
Hebrews,  he  advises  them  to  cheat  the  Egyptians;  he  is 
revengful,  and  malicious,  ma  king  the  heart  of  Pharo 
obdurate.  How  does  he  proceed  in  Nature?  Not  by 
immutable  laws,  but  irregularly,  in  spasms,  capriciously. 
bungling,  since  ho  lets  incessantly  wonders  occur. 
What  should  wo  think  of  a  mechanic  or  artist  who 
is  repairing  and  changing  his  work,  destroys  it  (as 
Jehovah  was  di-ing  during  the  deluge,)  or,  like  the 
watch  maker,  here  and  there  '.akes  out  a  wheel?  We 
should  call  him  a  bungler,  an  .-I  hi<  w  >rk  patch-work. 


ON  RELIGION. 


The  bungling  is,  particularly,  seen  in  the  man  of  the 
Bible.  Jehovah  creates  him  in  such  a  manner  that  he 
cannot  help  lose  his  innocence,  and  fall  in  sins,  as  soon 
as  he  tries  to  act  independently.  Adam  sins,  and  all 
men  inherit  the  sin  from  him.  The  Bible  teaches,  and 
all  Christian  sects  repeat  it  afterit  that  man,  by  nature, 
entirely  or  almost  entirely  is  depraved.  "There  is  none 
who  does  right,  not  one,"  teach  the  Psalms,  and  St.. 
Paul  says:  "Man  is  conceived  in  sins,  and  formed  in 
iniquity."  All  works  of  God  have  succeeded,  except 
man;  therefore*,  up  to  eight  persons,  all  must  be  de- 
stroyed by  the  deluge!  Man  proved  not  as  Jehovah  de- 
sired and  expected:  He  is  a  failure. 

RELATION  oF  JEHOVAH  TO  MAN. 

What  is  the  relation  of  the  God  of  the  Bible  to  man? 
He  is  the  king,  nay.  the  despot  of  men.  Power,  rage 
of  destroying  and  seltiness  mark  him  like  other  kings 
and  despots.  Of  course,  the  world  exists  for  his  glory, 
not  for  the  welfare  of  mankind.  Like  kings,  you  get 
admission  to  him  by  intercessors  and  petitions.  He  has 
caprices  and  pets,  like  a  Sultan;  he  predestinated  some 
of  his  subjects  to  Heaven,  others  to  hell.  So  the  Sultan 
sends  the  silken  lace  to  the  favorite  who  became  dis- 
graced. In  the  teachings  of  the  Bible,  man  has  no 
rights.  "He  has  designated  one  vessel  for  honor,  an- 
other for  dishonor,"  as  St.  Paul  teaches.  Virtue  has 
no  power  to  make  a  man  happ  y  the  selected  are  not 
better  than  the  others;  you  cannot  be  saved  but  by  the 
sufferings  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  by  blind  faith. 

CHARACTER  OF  THE  BIBLE-GOD  AS  LEGISLATOR. 

What  part  does  the  Bible-God  act  as  legislator  of 
mankind?  He  gave  laws  to  a  few  (to  the  Jews  and 
Christians);  to  those  he  promulgated  his  first,  to  these 
his  last  word:  Neveitheless,  all  men  ,.hall  be  judged 


ON    RELIGION.  285 

according  to  his  laws.  Sometimes  his^laws  contradict 
each  other.  By  one  passage  of  the  Bible  it  is  said: 
"Eye  for  eye;"  by  another:  "Present  to  him  who  strikes 
your  right  cheek  also  the  left;"  or:  The  man  who 
will  separate  from  his  wife,  there  is  ordered  to  give  her 
a  bill  ot  divorce;  here  he  is  declared  an  adulterer,  if  he 
marries  again.  Notwithstanding  these  contradictions, 
the  Christian  ought  to  observe  every  commandment, 
and  believe  every  word.  "But  reason  and  conscience 
protest  against  it."  'Down  with  reason  and  con- 
science," answers  St.  Paul;  "If  even  an  angel  from 
Heaven  teaches  something  else  than  I;  be  he  damned." 
According  to  the  Bible,  the  law  of  human  nature,  of 
our  mind  and  conscience  is  nothing;  but  the  command- 
ment: "Thou  shalt  not  eat  from  this  tree" — it  deserves 
to  be  observed.  The  first  men  did  not  observe  it,  could 
not  observe  it;  then,  the  kind  hearted  Jehovah  gets  an- 
gry, and  orders  the  earth  to  bear  thistles  and  thorns. 

BIBLICAL    ARRANGEMENT    OF    SALVATION. 

And  what  order  of  salvation  does  the  bible  arrange? 
Damnation  befell  all  mankind  with  the  sin  of  the  first 
couple;  infinite  misery  stroke  all  in  one  moment  and 
with  one  birth.  Nothing  can  propitiate  the  God  ol 
Christians;  for  suppose  that  some  one  be  no  sinner,  still 
he  is  infected  with  the  original  sin,  Nothing  but  the 
death  of  Jesus  can  appease  the  wrath  of  this  God. 
Suppose,  a  father  has  several  children  who,  except  one, 
are  all  disobedient;  will  he  accept  this  one  as  a  sacrifice 
for  their  disobedience?  Horrible  idea!  And  this  is 
the  book  they  called,  and  in  part,  still  call  the  sacred 
volume!  "But,"  the  Bible  adds,  "man  must  believe, 
and  use  the  sacraments,  in  order  to  be  saved."  Why, 
is  it  not  necessary  to  become  also  a  better  man?  "No." 
The  blood  of  Jesus  is  the  premium  for  the  insurance  of 


286  ON    RELIGION. 

eternal  life;  an  admission  ticket  to  Heaven,  for  the  good 
time  in  eternity  is  bought  with  it. 
But  how  small  is  the  number  of  the  elect!  Before  Christ, 
only  a  few  Jews  belonged  to  those;  all  heathens  are 
excluded,  for  "their  virtues  are  merely  bright  vices," 
according  to  the  doctrine  of  S.  Augustine.  Therefore, 
seven  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  about  one  thousand 
millions  of  men  who  live  on  the  earth,  are  damned; 
for  the  Christians  number  ^nly  two  hundred  and  fifty 
odd  millions.  But  how  many  are  elected  of  these?  To 
be  sure,  their  number  is  given  neither  in  the  Bible,  nor 
in  any  catechism;  but  it  must  be,  any-how,  very  small. 
Namely,  they  have  computed  that  only  one  in  forty 
Christians  is  a  member  of  a  church,  the  fortieth  part  of 
two  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  Christians  amounts 
to  six  and  one  fourth  millions,  who,  consequently,  are 
saved,  that  is:  one  of  one  hundred  thousand;  the  other 
two  hundred  and  fourty  three  and  three  fourths  of 
millions,  or  ninty  seven  and  one  half  per  cent,  descend, 
though  they  are  Christians,  to  eternal  damnation. 
Nay,  the  Catholic  Church  excludes  even  the  Protestants 
from  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  You  are  certainly 
right,  St.  Matthew,  if  you  teach:  "Straight  is  the  gate 
and  narrow  is  the  way  which  leadeth  into  life,  and  few 
there  be  that  find  it!" 

DOGMA  OF  TRINITY. 

That's  the  sketch  of  the  Bible-God;  a  being  as 
horrible  as  the  Saturn  of  the  Greeks  who  devours  his 
own  children,  the  Malkarth  of  the  Tyriens,  the  Locke 
of  the  Scandinavians.  But  this  God  is,  according  to 
the  Bible,  also  FATHER,  has  a  son  who  equals  him  in 
divinity,  to  which  kindred  the  holy  book  still  adds  a 
third  God,  the  holy  spirit.  But  these  three  beings  are 
one:  an  incomprehensible  example  of  arithmetic.  Three 


RELIGION1.  2*7 


times  one  shall  no  more  be  three,  but  one!  When 
I  objected  to  the  mystery  of  the  trinity,  a  Methodist 
minister  explained  it  in  this  way:  "Look  at  a  dung- 
fork:  it  has  three  prongs,  still  it  is  only  one  fork." 
Though  the  Bible  attributes  to  the  son  a  kinder  mind 
than  to  the  father,  yet  he  also  likes  destruction,  since 
he  threatens  the  unbelievers  that,  at  dooms-day,  they 
shall  fare  worse  than  the  inhabitants  of  Sodom.  The 
third  prong  of  the  Biblical  dung-fork,  the  holy-ghost, 
does  not  effect  much!  This  spirit  does  not  more  in- 
spire, does  not  hover  above  the  school-house  where  his 
assistance  would  be  most  needed,  was  not  helpful 
neither  to  professor  Morse  to  invent  the  telegraph,  nor 
to  Alexander  Humboldt,  the  author  of  the  Kosmos. 
For  the  rest,  he  neither  likes  the  infidels, 

THE  DEVIL.  THE  MOTHER  OF  GOD. 

The  Biblical  mythology  is  not  yet  finished  with  those 
three  persons  of  Godhead.  The  Bible,  speaks,  too,  of 
an  evil  principle  which  it  calls  devil,  satan,  and  to 
which  it  attributes  greater  power  than  even  to  the 
three  divine  persons. 

Nay,  the  Christians  believe  also  in  a  mother  of  God,  a 
belief  which  they  also  derive  from  the  Bible;  some  ones 
continue  the  pedigree  of  the  Biblical  divinities  farther, 
believing  also  in  a  grandmother  of  God,  the  holy  Anne, 
in  an  infallible  pope,  and  perhaps  in  time:  yet  in  a  great- 
grand-mother  of  God. 

CONSEQUENCES    OF  THE  DOGMATIC  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

What,  then,  is  the  Bible,  considered  from  the  stand- 
point of  its  dogmatic  doctrine,  still  worth  to  our  time? 
Most  of  philosophers,  physicians  and  naturalists  deny  its 
doctrine  of  immortality,  its  theory  of  "Heaven  and  I  It'll, 
or  they  pass  it  by  in  silence.  They  let  the  God  ot  the 
Bible  rule  in  his  Heaven  without  concerning  themselves 


288  OX    RELIGION.. 


much  for  him.  What  tender  mother  who  is  ready  to< 
give  up  her  life  for  her  children  must  not  detest  the  doc- 
trine of  an  eternal  damnation?  Modern  civil  society  is 
combatting  the  Church,  Christianity  and  the  Bible^ 
There  is  no  more  question  of  the  Bible  in  congresses,, 
parliaments,  legislative  conventions,  meetings  of  diets; 
its  practical  influence  in  the  great  questions  and  actions 
of  our  age,  in  the  works  of  philanthropy,  literature,  sci- 
ences, of  important  commercial  enterprises  is  extinct. 
The  ideals  represented  by  Shakespeare,  Schiller,  Goethe, 
Lessing  to  their  readers,  are  persons  of  high  morality, 
no  church -people,  no  believers  in  the  Bible.  The  non- 
sense of  the  Biblical-doctrine  of  dogmas  created  more  in- 
fidels than  the  writings  of  the  boldest  atheists.  All  cultiva- 
ted persons  of  our  century  reject  the  Biblical  dogmas  of 
Trinity,  of  miracles,  of  a  devil.  Did  Alexander  Hum- 
boldt  also  kneel  to  the  dough-baken  Lord — the  holy 
wafer?  Does  a  Darwin,  a  Louis  Buchner,  a  Charles 
Vogt  believe  that  the  Bible  is  the  word  of  God?  Na- 
turalists, philosophers,  poets,  nay,  even  theologians  mock 
the  Bible  or  have  a  care  to  speak  of  )t.  I  quote  of  the 
former,  besides  those  I  mentioned,  still  de  Buch,  Okeny 
Oersted  and  La  Place;  as  to  the  philosophers,  I  show 
only  Voltaire,  J.  J.  Rousseau,  Kant,  Fichte,  Hegel, 
Thomas  Paine,  Robert  Ingersoll,  and  Louis  Feuerbach; 
among  the  theologians,  Dr.  David  Strauss  and  Wisli- 
cenus;  and  since  the  commencement  of  our  century,  al- 
most all  noted  poets,  from  Burger  and  Lessing  to  Lord 
Byron,  George  Sand,  Victor  Hugo  and  George  Elliott 
are  infidels.  Finally,  the  many  liberal  societies  and  all 
free  religious  associations  in  Europe  and  America  must 
be  numbered  among  these.  True,  the  infidels  are  be- 
rated by  the  orthodox  Christians  as  bad  men;  but  they 
are  not  bad;  no,  faithful  to  the  voice  of  human  nature, 


ON    RELIGION.  289 


they  promote  science,  and  excel  in  efforts  for  general 
welfare,  humanity  and  philantropic  works.  The  time 
cannot  be  far  distant  when  Lessing's  prophetic  word 
will  be  accomplished:  "Let  us  first  shake  off  the  fetters 
of  the  living  pope  in  Rome;  then,  we  shall  soon  get  rid 
of  the  paper-pope — the  Bible." 

WHAT  ARE  MORALS  OF  THE  BIBLE  STILL 
WORTH  TO  OUR  AGE  ? 

BIBLICAL  VIEW  OF  THE  EARTH. 

The  Bible  represents  the  earth  as  an  abode  of  misery, 
as  a  jail,  and  God  as  its  jailer.  By  such  a  view  of  the 
world,  it  fosters  in  the  heart  of  its  reverers  the  immoral 
sentiment  of  fear  of  their  God.  Look  at  the  long,  mo- 
rose faces  of  the  Puritans.  The  Catholics  hear,  in  their 
"requiems"  the  hymn  "Dies  Irse,"  which  thunders  in 
their  ears  the  horrors  of  the  doomsday;  the  Protest- 
tants  sing  in  their  hymn-books  similar  airs.  Even  the 
children  quake  at  the  idea  of  the  Biblical  God  of  thun- 
der. A  boy  of  eight  years  used,  before  going  to  bed,  to 
pray  upon  his  knees,  "Oh  God,  do  not  damn  me !"  A 
mother  must  divide  her  heart  between  the  Lord  and 
her  children — nay,  tremble  if  she  remembers  that  he 
possesses  the  power  to  hurl  them  into  the  pool  of  hell, 
and  to  torment  them  forever. 

FIENDISH  EMOTIONS  PLANTED  IN  THE  MINDS  BY  THE  BIBLE. 

The  Bible  plants  malicious  emotions  in  the  credulous 
minds.  The  pre-elected  rejoice  at  the  torments  of  the 
damned  wretches;  by  the  contemplation  of  their 
sufferings  their  own  bliss  is  increased.  The  Bible  tells 
us  that  Lazarus  will  not  even  dip  the  finger  end  in  cold 
water  to  cool  the  infernal  pains  of  the  rich  man.  If  a 
good  man  sees  a  hungry  dog  whining  at  his  feet  he  has 
mercy  for  him;  but  these  saints  of  the  Bible  look  down 


290  ON    RELIGION. 

exultingly  with  God,  the  heavenly  Lamb,  and  the 
angels,  on  the  damned  ones,  among  whom,  perhaps  are 
their  children,  brothers,  sisters,  or  parents. 

GOD,  REPRESENTED  AS  AN  IDEAL  OF  MORALS. 

Men,  in  their  actions,  must  follow  the  examples  of 
others  whom  they  respect  and  love.  Words  induce, 
examples  impel.  The  believers  in  the  Bible  act  also 
according  to  this  principle;  they  imitate  its  examples; 
but  what  ideals  does  it  exhibit?  It  commands  them: 
"Become  perfect,  as  your  Father  in  Heaven  is  perfect!" 
But  it  represents  God  in  many  passages  as  a  deceitful, 
malicious,  revengeful  being,  who  chose  a  few,  without 
their  merits,  for  Heaven,  but  damned  millions,  without 
their  fault  to  Hell.  No!  the  God  of  the  Bible  is  no 
perfect  being. 

JESUS  CHRIST:  AN  OTHER  IDEAL. 

The  second  ideal  of  the  Bible  reverer  is  Jesus  Christ. 
This  (if  there  was  ever  such  a  man)  had,  in  general,  a 
reputable  character,  principally  by  the  reason  that  he 
sacrificed  his  life  for  h.s  reformatory  plans;  but  the  un- 
biased writer  discovers  also  in  his  character  several 
faults.  He  wandered  about  without  a  certain  business. 
He  suffered  himself  to  be  supported  by  kind-hearted 
women.  His  parents  must  seek  him  during  three  days. 
He  purposed  to  induce  Jerusalem  to  accept  his  doctrine 
by  means  of  revolution.  As  he  never  was  married,  he 
cannot  be  an  ideal  for  husbands  and  parents.  He, 
too,  threatens  the  Infidels  with  the  punishment  of  hell, 
telling  them  on  dooms-day,  "Away  from  me,  damned 
ones!"  I  should  go  too  far  if  I  would  analyse  thoroughly 
his  character;  suffice  that  those  few  quotations  already 
prove  that  the  Son  is  not  a  more  aecomplished  ideal  of 
moral  culture  than  the  Father? 


o'N    KELIGIOK.  2.\n 

MORKnVKK  TJil-:   rATUIARCllS,  ABRAHAM.  ISAAC  K'H '. 

The  Bible  exhibits  the  patriarchy,  Abraham,  Isaac, 
and  Jacob,  and  most  of  all  David,  as  patterns  worthy  of 
veneration  and  imitation.  It  can  be  easily  understood 
why  it  preferred  them  to  all  other  men:  they  were 
Jehovah's  most  faithful  adorers.  Therefore  it  calls 
David  the  man  after  th:  heart  of  God;  and  Abraham 
went  in  his  blind  zeal  so  far  that  he  would  sacrifice  to 
Jehovah  even  his  son  Isaac;  but  even  for 
this  readiness  we  call  him  an  unnatural  father, 
•a  cruel  fanatic,  who  deserves  our  detestation,  not 
imitation.  He  delivered  also  his  wife  twice  to  the  em- 
braces o*  other  men.  He  and  the  twro  others,  Jacob 
and  Isaac,  had  several  wives  and  concubines;  Jacob  de- 
ceived his  father,  brothers,  and  uncle;  David  seduced 
the  wife  of  Uriah,  and  ordered  him  to  be  killed,  for  the 
reason  that  he  could  possess  her  forever.  These  are  the 
sublime  models  the  Bible  recommends.  The  Mormons 
imitate  the  Patriarchs  strictly,  but  do  we,  for  ail  that, 
respact  them?  By  the  fruit  the  tree  is  known:  Mormon - 
ism  is  a  fruit  of  the  Biblical  morals. 

THE  CODE  OF  JUSTICE  OF  THE  BIBLE 
IS  INHUMAN. 

Among  the  crimes  of  the  Jewish  nation,  the  Bible 
calls  idolatry  the  worst,  and  commands  to  kill  the  man 
who  coinmited  ^t,  and  to  burn  his  residence.  Besides, 
this  book  ordered  to  put  to  death  the  neighboring  Pa^an 
nations,  "even  their  wives  and  children."  Sorcery  was 
also  punished  with  death.  The  administration  of  justice 
of  the  Bible  is  inhuman;  its  base  is  the  law  of  eye,  and 
tooth  for  eye  and  tooih!  This  book,  too,  iri  :es  protec- 
tion toslavery. 

SLAVERY    AND  POLYGAMY, 

But  still,  a  few  years   aii'o,  it    did    not   occur    to   the 


Christian  world,  that  slavery  was  wrong,  it  was  upheld, 
by  the  Church.  Ministers  bought  and  sold  the  very 
people  for  whom  they  declared  that  Christ  had  died  .. 
Clergymen  of  the  English  Church,  owned  stock  in 
slave  ships,  and  the  man  who  denounced  slavery  was 
regarded  as  the  enemy  of  morality,  and  thereupon  was 
mobbed  by  the  followers  of  Jesus  Christ.  Churches 
were  built  with  the  results  of  labor  stolen  from  colored 
Christians.  Babes  were  sold  from  mothers,  and  a  part 
of  the  money  given  to  send  missionaries  from  America  to 
heathen  lands  with  the  tidings  of  great  joy.  So  with 
the  institution  of  polygamy.  If  anything  on  the  earth 
is  immoral,  that  is.  "If  there  is  any  thing- 
calculated  to  destroy  home,  to  do  away  with  human  love, 
to  blot  out  the  idea  of  family  life,  to  cover  the  hearth- 
stone with  serpents,  it  is  the  institution  of  polygamy. 
The  Jehovah  ot  the  Old  Testament  was  a  believer  in 
that  institution."* 

NEITHER  THE  MORALS  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT   ARE   PURE^ 

It  is  true  that  the  morals  of  the  New  Testament  are 
purer;  but  bad  dross  is  not  wanting  in  this,-too.  It  it 
directs  the  Christians  to  the  lilies  of  the  field  and  to  the 
birds  of  the  sky,  it  demands  from  them  too  much  con- 
fidence in  a  presumptive  Providence.  If  it  orders  them 
to  quit  everything  and  to  follow  Jesus,  it  teaches  them 
to  despise  possession  and  property.  From  this  prepos- 
terous doctrine  the  cloisters  of  the  mendicant  friars  took 
their  origin.  By  preferring  celibacy  to  matrimony,  it 
induced  the  Christians  to  introduce  the  unmarried  state 
of  priests,  this  moral  cancer  of  the  Catholic  Church. 
The  supreme  principle  of  the  Christian  morals  is,  "Do- 
always  that  which  God  wills:"  from  this  principle,  be- 


*Kob.  Ingersoll,  "The  divided  household  of  faith." 


ON    RELNUOX.  293 


sides  many  other  villanies,  emanated  the  bloody  scenes 
in  the  Crusades,  in  which  the  Christians  massacred 
thousands,  crying  "God  wills  it." 

The  New  Testament  teaches  intolerance  by  the  words: 
"Every  plant  my  father  did  not  plant  must  be  eradi- 
cated." In  this  way  the  Bible  became  the  mother  of 
the  heinous  Inquisition,  by  which  it  was  branded  with 
eternal  infamy.  Its  dogma  that  Christ  by  his  voluntary 
death  on  the  cross,  propitiated  the  divine  ire,  and  took 
away  every  sin  of  the  faithful,  has  given  the  death-blow 
to  the  moral  energy  of  the  Christians.  Moreover,  hope 
of  heavenly  bli-s  and  fear  of  hell  are  impure  motives  to 
virtue  and  honesty. 

MANY    PRECEPTS  OF  THE  BIBLE  CONTRADICT  EACH  OTHER. 

Finally,  do  not  many  of  its  precepts  contradict  each 
other?  For  instance,  this  one:  "Take  no  thought  for 
the  morrow,"  and  compare  it  with  the  injunction:  "But 
if  one  provide  not  for  his  own.  and  especially  for  those 
of  his  own  house,  he  has  denied  the  faith,  and  is  worse 
than  an  Infidel  " 

THEOLOGY      MUST      ADVANCE,      WITH     THE     AGE,    LIKE 
OTHER    SCIENCES. 

I  have  touched  here  only  the  mosH;  impure  spots  of 
the  Biblical  morals,  but  even  from  my  few  remarks  the 
thinking  reader  will  infer  that  the  moral  doctrine  of  the 
Bible  cannot  suffice  for  our  age.  It  cannot  be  other- 
wise. As  the  religious  perceptions  of  the  individual 
man  by  and  by  change  in  proportion  as  he  advances 
from  infancy  to  manly  age,  just  so  is  it  with  whole  na- 
tions— nay,  with  mankind  generally.  In  the  lapse  of 
time  till  sciences  advance;  religion  alone  cannot  remain 
back;  it  must  share  the  progress  with  them.  In  vain 
its  priests  and  blind  reverers  oppose  the  revolving  wheel 
of  time;  the  reforms  in  its  domains  are  either  insensibly, 


294  ON    RELIGION. 

in  calmness,  or,  sometimes  on  a  sudden  performed  by 
religious  revolutions,  as,  e.  g.,  in  the  age  of  Martin  Lu- 
ther, Zwingli,  Knox  etc.  The  Mosaical  religion  was 
well  adapted  to  the  rude,  ignorant  Israelites;  when 
Greeks  and  Komans  spread  the  seed  of  civilization 
among  them,  Jesus  stood  up  as  a  reformer.  When,  in 
the  16th  century,  the  dawn  of  the  sciences  broke  in 
Italy,  France,  England,  and  Germany,  the  iconoclasts 
of  that  time  set  to  work  in  the  reformation  of  the 
Church.-  And  since,  sciences — especially  physical  sci- 
ence— have  advanced  with  gigantic  strides .  Then  why 
should  theology  alone  be  allowed  to  continue  its  lazy 
slumber  upon  the  mouldy  pillow7  of  the  Bible? 

REFORM    OF    BIBLICAL    MORALS. 

No,  a  new  mental  revolution  has  already  begun,  and 
we  are  living  in  the  midst  of  it.  Concerning,  partic- 
ularly, the  morals  of  the  Bible,  they  don't  answer  the 
grade  of  culture  of  our  age.  This  won  new  views  of 
the  Universe  and  life;  it  demands  a  moral  doctrine 
which  rests  upon  the  necessary,  natural  laws  of  Nature, 
upon  Reason  and  Conscience  as  its  base;  it  demands  a 
righteous  State,  in  which  the  people  are  the  sovereign; 
for  it  is  tired  of  that  Biblical  theocracy.  It  demands 
equal  rights  for  all  men,  without  distinction  of  color, 
sex  and  rank;  it  demands,  instead  of  the  bloody  wars 
which  are  sanctioned  by  the  Bible,  the  solid  brother- 
hood of  all  nations,  instead,  to  one  league  of  humanity; 
it  demands  a  better  education  of  the  youth,  because  it 
thinks  this  to  be  the  foundation  of  an  unshaken  State. 
For  these  reasons  the  morals  of  a  barbarian  people — 
the  morals  of  the  Bible — do  not  suffice  for  our  age. 

DECAY  OF  THE  BELIEF  IN  THE  BIBLE. 

And  what  is  the  Bible,  generally,  still  worth  to  our  age? 
It  resembles  an  old,  decaying   fortress,  in  the  walls    of 


ON    RELIGION.  295 


which  already  many  breaches  have  been  shot;  its  de- 
fendants  repulse  sometime  a  feeble  attack  of  the  ad- 
versaries, take  again  possession  of  an  outwork;  but 
upon  the  whole,  they  are  always  repelled  by  the  well 
directed  artillery  of  science;  even  theology  takes  the 
field  against  it.  In  France,  Renan,  a  renowned  priest, 
wrote  a  heretical  book,  "The  Life  of  Jesus.''  In  Ger- 
many, Dr.  David  Strauss,  a  young  professor  of  theology, 
declared  the  narratives  of  the  gospel  myths,  others 
even  call  them  anile  fables.  Not  only  men  of  science, 
even  the  common  people  desert  the  belief  in  the  Bible 
more  and  more. 
THE  CALL  OF  DR.  DAVID  FREDERICK 

STRAUSS. 

Dr.  David  Frederick  Strauss,  who  in  his  famous 
work  uLife  of  Jesus*'  tried  to  prove  that  its  history  is 
but  a  pious  myth,  was,  in  1839,  appointed  Professor 
of  Theology  in  Zurich,  Switzerland.  The  population 
of  the  Canton  opposed  his  arrival.  At  that  occasion, 
I  published  a  pamphlet  in  Zurich,  in  which  I  faith- 
fully took  side  with  the  government.  I  communicate 
here  a  part  of  the  writing, 

CHARACTER  OF  DR.  STRAUSS. 

PARTICULARS  OF  HIS  LIFE. 

Dr.  Strauss  was  born  in  1807  at  Ludwigsburg  in 
Wurtemberg.  His  father  is  a  wealthy  merchant,  in 
whose  family  plain  manners  and  religious  sense  sway; 
his  mother  is  an  intelligent  and  talented  lady.  He 
frequented  the  institutes  of  Ludwigsburg,  Biaubeuren, 
and  Tubingen.  In  1830-  he  became  vicar  of  a  par- 
sonage, and  in  1831  he  had  obtained  a  professorship. 
At  the  end  of  1831  he  was  a  student  at  the  University 
of  Berlin,  and  in  1832  he  became  professor  of  Theology 


296  ON    RELIGION. 


in  Tubingen.  Here,  the  most  talented  young  men,, 
were  his  pupils.  They  respected  him,  lor  his  deep 
erudition,  for  faithfulness  in  his  profession,  and  for  his- 
incessant  assiduity. 

HE  IS  PERSECUTED. 

His  great  work  "The  life  of  Jesus"  made  its  appear- 
ance. It  opened  a  newr  period  in  the  history  of  the 
Christian  Church.  Before  the  printing  of  its  second 
part  was  finished,  the  tempest  of  persecution  burst  upon 
the  head  of  the  bold  man.  The  government  of  Wur- 
temberg  declared  that  he  should  no  longer  be  permitted 
to  continue  the  professorship  of  theology.  He  was 
turned  out  of  the  p  ulpit,  stigmatized  a  dangerous  sub- 
ject and  proclaimed  to  be  incompetent  to  hold  any 
position  in  the  public  schools.  This  is  religious  liberty 
in  highly  civilized  Germany- 
After  the  supreme  magistrates  had  given  their 
verdict  of  "guilty,"  the  authors  and  colleagues  of  his 
guild  pounced  upon  him  and  his  book  and  distorting  it, 
selecting  here  and  there  a  feeble  passage,  forged  out  of 
them  scorching  paragraphs  against  the  helpless.  Then 
the  people  took  part.  A  great  many  approved  of  his 
doctrine,  and  received  it  with  enthusiasm.  But  many 
rejected  it  without  having  any  knowledge  of  its  con- 
tents. 

CHARACTER    OF    HIS    ADVERSARIES. 

Let  us  stop  a  moment  at  this  event!  Think  of  a  man 
who  had  to  go  to  school  for  many  years,  in  order  to  be 
able  to  graduate.  You  can  easily  calculate  what  sums 
of  money  must  have  been  spent  for  this  purpose.  What 
toil  and  exertion  of  the  mind  it  required!  At  last  the 
man  reached  the  goal.  He  graduates  a  doctor  ol  phi- 
losophy, a  teacher  of  theology.  He  is  appointed  pro- 


ON    RELIGION.  297 


fessor  in  the  university  of  Tubingen.  The  brightest 
prospects  are  opened  to  him.  Now  the  verdict  is  pro- 
claimed: "You  can  hold  no  position  as  a  public 
teacher,  none  as  a  preacher  and  minister,  away  from 
your  chair!"  Hereby  the  access  to  office  and  honor  is  de- 
barred from  him  forever.  When  he  had  written  his 
"Life  of  Jesus,"  a  friend  warned  him  not  to  publish  it, 
as  the  publication  of  the  book  would  cost  him  his  em- 
ployment and  livelihood.  Strauss  replied  that  he  felt 
himself  urged  to  this  work,  and  that  he  could  not  do 
otherwise.  He  said:  "If  I  lose  my  position,  I  shall 
leave  it  to  God,  he  will  probably  open  for  me  another 
door." 

STRAUSS    IN     LUDWIGSBURG. 

When  Doctor  Strauss  was  dismissed,  many  tears  were 
shed  by  the  people  and  students  for  their  beloved  and 
admired  teacher.  He  retired  to  Ludwigsburg,  where 
he  lived  as  a  private  person  in  modest  silence.  While 
his  king  here  indulged  in  pleasure,  the  most  honest  citi- 
zen suffered  from  the  missiles  of  wrong.  Meanwhile, 
his  adversaries  did  not  stop  to  sputter  their  poison  upon 
the  innocent.  He  who  had  lost  his  office  and  compe- 
tence, still  saw  new  libels  appear  every  day.  In  our 
Canton,  too,  a  man  of  charity  (parson  in  *  *  )  was 
busy  to  collect  "the  votes  of  Germany"  against  Strauss. 
A  sad  business!  Net  only  this!  Some  hinted  even  that 
Strauss  had  escaped  happily  enough  by  having  lost  only 
his  employment!  They  praised  the  government  of  his 
country  for  being  merciful.  It  acted,  indeed,  kinder 
than  the  Inquisition  of  Spain  in  former  times.  Doctor 
Strauss  was  not  burned  alive!  O  Christians!  When 
will  you  learn  to  be  men! 


298  ON    RELIGION. 


HIS  BEHAVIOR  TOWARDS  HIS  ADVERSARIES. 

Dr.  Strauss  let  his  enemies  rave.  He  opposed  their 
accusations  in  calm  earnestness;  he  endured  their  deri- 
sion with  meekness;  he  defeated  their  slanders  by  vic- 
torious truth.  Genuine  metal  is  tested  by  fire.  So  far 
we  saw  our  man  in  the  public  stage;  let  us  now  follow 
him  into  the  home  circle,  into  the  midst  of  private  life. 

HIS  PRIVATE  LIFE. 

"If  you  will  not  believe  my  words,  look  at^my  works." 
So  told  one  whom  we  revere  as  the  founder  of  our  re- 
ligion. Be  his  works  the  scale  by  which  we  will  meas- 
ure our  man.  And  here  I  challenge  all  his  enemies  to 
show  forth  a  single  disgraceful  spot  in  the  moral  course 
of  his  life.  They  may  do  it  if  they  can,  and  I  shall 
ashamed  keep  my  peace.  Doctor  Strauss  enjoys  the 
unanimous  testimonial  of  honesty  from  his  friends 
and  enemies.  Mayor  Hirzel  of  Zurich,  lately 
expressed  this  testimonial  publicly  in  the  Great 
Council;  all  orators  ,gave  it  to  him,  also  these 
who  spoke  against  him,  Even  the  Antistes  (president 
of  the  general  synod  of  the  Reformed  Church)  con- 
fessed that  it  would  be  a  slander  to  try  to  attack  the 
moral  character  of  the  man.  A  minister,  well  known 
in  Germany  (Krummacher,  author  of  "Parables'') 
traveled  from  afar  in  order  to  convert  Dr.  Strauss. 
Poor  fellow!  The  experiment  was  a  failure,  as  it  could 
be  expected.  Still  the  same  man  publicly  confessed: 
"If  somebody  came  to  Dr.  Strauss  with  the  poniard 
hidden  in  his  garment,  planning  to  kill  him,  and  saw 
his  calm,  benevolent  face,  animated  by  confidence  and 
philathropy:  the  poniard  would  surely  drop  from  his 
hand:  he  would  not  be  able  to  kill  him:" 

He  passed  the  years  of  his  trial  in  silent  resignation. 
His  next  surrounding  company  did  not  miss  the  loving 


ON    RKLHilOX. 


friend.     Though  he  had  much  reason  to  be  dissatisfied 
with  people,  he  never  resented    it    to    his    family.     On 
the  contrary,  the  more  those  repulsed  him,  the  closer  he 
Joined  to  that  one. 

He  wrote,  the  10th  of  February,  to  a  friend  of  this 
city:  "I  acknowledge  perfectly  the  importance  of  the 
task  which  you  and  the  confidence  of  your  fellow-citi- 
zens impose  upon  me,  and  it  would  fill  me  with  dismay, 
it  I  could  not  be  assured  that  I  would  have  valiant  pro- 
tectors and  kind  judges.  I  must  only  believe  that  you 
overrate  the  strength  of  this  hand,  and  I  must  almost  be 
afraid  that  it  will  be  easier  for  me  to  refute  the  bad 
opinion  of  my  adversaries  than  to  corns  equal  every- 
where to  the  high  one  of  my  patrons."  And  you  will 
petition  against  such  a  man  whose  modesty  is  as  capti- 
vating as  his  scholarship! 

INFERENCE. 

And  such  a -man  is  treated  by  a  part  of  our  citizens 
in  this  way?  True,  he  is  yet  absent,  but  he  will  make 
his  appearance;  he  accepted  the  call  which  was  issued 
to  him;  perhaps  he  will  be  very  soon  among  us.  How 
will  you  receive  this  man?  There  is  a  rumor  that  some 
parishes  will  arrange  mass-meetings  against  him.  We 
hear  that  some  imprecate  to  him  even  death.  Who  are 
they  who  pass  such  a  sentence?  Do  they  know  Strauss? 
Read  what  I  have  now  communicated  to  you  concern- 
ing his  person,  read  it  again  and  again;  then  answer: 
Does  not  such  a  man  deserve  respect  and  love?  Would 
to  God  that  all  our  ministers  would  think  and  act  as 
nobly  as  he;  our  parishes  would  call  him  welcome. 
(See  History  of  Switzerland  page  213). 


300  ON  RELIGION. 


THE  SOMNAMBULIST  OF  W SWITZER- 
LAND. 

HER  HYPOCRISY  AND  CRUELTY, 

Miss  Catherine  B belonged  to  a  sectarian  soci- 
ety, the  members  of  which  did  not  like  to  work,  but 
trusted  in  the  providence  of  the  Heavenly  Father  whose 
Son  said:  "Behold  the  fowls  of  the  air;  for  they  sow 
not,  neither  do  they  reap,  nor  gather  into  barns;  yet 
your  Heavenly  Father  feedeth  them.  Are  ye  not  much 
better  than  they?"  Several  of  them  run  in  debts  and 
had  to  sell  part  of  their  property  with  great  loss.  They 
assembled  in  che  bed-room  of  Catherine,  where  they 
said  prayers  and  sang  hymns,  almost  every  day. 
Catherine  played  the  clairvoyant,  spoke,  with  closed 
eyes,  like  a  dreamer,  and  told  to  her  fellow-believers 
queer  stories  about  the  planets  in  which  she,  during  her 
trances,  travelled;  described  the  different  objects  which 
she  pretended  to  see  there,  flowers,  precious  gems,  an- 
gels etc.  The  descriptions  were  taken  from  a  book 
which  was,  then,  in  vogue  and  the  author  of  which  was 
Justinus  Koerner, a  phantastic  physician.  It  contained 
imaginary  descriptions  of  all  planets,  their  inhabitants, 
towns  etc.,  imitated  from  the  delineation  of  the  New 
'Jerusalem  in  the  Apocalypse.  The  believers  gave  to 
the  prophetess  flowers,  delicacies  of  food,  and  money. 

She  lived  at  W ,  a  suburb  of  Zurich,  in  the   house 

of  her  uncle  who  had  a  boy  about  eight  years  old. 
When  the  child  committed  the  least  fault,  she  punished 
him  severely.  Often  she  locked  him  up  in  a  dark  eel- 


ON    RELIGION.  301 

lar,  which  was  under  the  house.  There  she  stretched 
and  fastened  a  long  string  which  the  boy  was  forbidden 
to  step  over.  The  poor  child  had  to  stay  there  for 
hours,  in  the  dark.  I  was,  then,  teacher  in  Zurich, 
Switzerland,  and  lived  in  the  same  house,  with  her  and 
her  uncle.  I  was  sometimes  present  at  the  meetings  of 
the  fanatics,  but  when  the  girl  noticed  me,  she  cried: 
"An  Infidel  is  in  the  room,"  an  then  kept  still,  stop- 
ping the  report  of  her  Heavenly  travels. 

HER  UNCLE  FALLEN  IN  LOVE  WITH  HER  AND  THE 
CONSEQUENCES. 

She  feigned  to  suffer  from  the  attack  of  a  maliciou- 
spirit  in  her  belly,  and  her  aunt  believed  her  fictions. 
When  she  suffered  from  the  fits  of  the  evil  spirit,  the 
uncle  used  to  kneel  on  her  belly,  and  to  press  her  throat 
in  order  to  "cast  out  the  demon"  (as  he  said,)  and 
his  wife  had  to  go  for  the  doctor.  He  prescribed  her 
some  medicine,  and  thought  a  long  time  that  the  girl 
was  really  sick.  In  this  way  uncle  and  niece  lived, 
many  months,  in  incest,  in  the  same  house  where  the 
aunt  resided,  who  imagined  her  niece  to  be  pure  and 
chaste,  and  almost  a  saint. 

THE  DOCTOR  BEGINS  TO  SUSPECT  HER. 

The  hypocrite  pretended  also  to  know  what  people  in 
other  towns,  during  her  absence  was  doing.  As  the 
doctor  began  to  suspect  her  honesty,  he  did  not  come, 
as  usual,  to  see  her,  but  finally  paid  her  a  visit,  in  order 
to  ensare  her.  He  asked  her  "Do  you  know,  where  I 
was  yesterday  ?"  She  answered:  "You  were  in  A — in 
order  to  see  Miss  O.,  who  is  sick."  The  doctor  re- 
plied: "You  are  mistaken,  I  was  not  in  A — at  all,  I  was 
at  home,"  Since,  he  watched  her  closer.  One  night, 
when  he  was  in  her  residence,  and  I  was  also  there, 
she  rose  from  the  bed  of  her  uncle  where  she  was  lying, 
took  a  candle  and  left  the  room  with  closed  eyes.  The 


302 


ON    RELIGION. 


physician  followed  |  her  crying:  "Do  not  dissemble! 
You  see  as  well  as  I."  She  gave  no  answer,  but  went 
with  the  candle,  the  eyes  closed,  up  stairs  to  her  bed- 
room. Her  friends  followed  her. 

DETECTION  OF,  THE  CRIME,  AND  PUNISHMENT   OF  THF 
HYPOCRITE. 

She  continued  this  farce  for  several  months  more. 
Finally,'when  she  was  with  child  from  her  uncle,  both 
disappeared.  The  police  had  detected  their  infamous 
course  of  life,  and  imprisoned  both  in  the 
penitentiary.  After  the  detection  of  the  crime 
the  meetings  of  the  followers  of  the  Saint 
were  at  fan  end.  I  published  the  particulars  of  this 
scandalous  story  in  a  pamphlet,  and  gave  a  part  of  my 
profit  to  a  poor  woman  who  lived  in  my  neighborhood. 


ON    RELIGION.  303 


PETITION  OF  THE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC 
CLERGY,  DIRECTED  TO   HIS    HOLI- 
NESS, POPE  LEO  XII. 

HOLY  FATHER: — Your  Holiness  is  aware  that  we 
were  obliged  to  renounce  matrimony,  before  we  were 
admitted  to  the  clerical  order.  The  yoke  which  was 
imposed  on  us,  is  too  heavy;  heavier  than  a  nian  of 
sound  physical  constitution  can  bear  during  his  entire 
life:  therefore  we  desire  to  be  relieved  of  it.  The  Holy 
Bible  is  our  advocate,  in  this  serious  matter;  she  reports: 
"When  God  created  man,  he  said:  "  'It  is  not  good 
that  man  should  be  alone:  I  W'll  make  him  a  help- 
meet.' " — Gen.  2,  18.  And  after  having  created  both, 
man  and  wife,  he  blessed  them  and  said  unto  them: 
'Be  ye  fruitful,  and  multiply,  and  replenish  the  earth." 
—Gen.  1,  28.  His  Apostle  Paul,  thus  admonished  his 
disciple  Timothy;  "The  bishop  must  be  the  husband  of 
one  wife/' — 1  Ep.  to  Tim.  3,  12.  The  Apostle,  there- 
with  spoke  words  of  wisdom.  It  is  difficult  for  a  bishop 
to  behave  without  reproach,  if  no  spouse  is  associated 
with  him. 

The  sexual  instinct  is,  besides  the  love  of  life,  the 
strongest  of  human  nature.  Holy  Father,  you  know 
that  Origen,  one  of  the  brightest  luminaries  of  our 
Church,  mutilated  himself,  because  he  could  not  re- 
sist the  temptation  of  the  flesh.  How  many  husbands 
can  withstand  it,  if  they  are  absent  from  their  wives, 
for  a  long  time?  Some  priests  grew  insane  by  compul- 


304  ON    RELIGION. 


sory.atatinence,  and  sometimes  the  monks  threatened 
their  superiors  with  poison  and  dagger,  if  they  opposed 
the  gratification  of  their  lusts.  Many  clergymen  in- 
dulge in  a  luxurious  life,  seduce  the  wives  and  daugh- 
ters of  their  parishioners,  or  live  in  concubinage  with 
their  servants.  Some  abused  even  the  confessional  for 
satisfying  their  unchaste  desires.  When  the  priests  pro- 
create children,  they  often  give  them  a  bad  education, 
and  these  children  sometimes  become  criminals.  In 
the  neighborhood  of  a  convent,  a  dry  well  was  found  in 
which  the  skeletons  of  many  little  ones  were  discovered 
who,  after  abortion,  had  been  thrown  in. 

Three  hundred  years  ago,  celibacy  of  the  Catholic 
priests  was  one  of  the  principal  reasons  why  millions  of 
Catholics  turned  Protestants.  In  our  days,  too,  Cath- 
olic priests  leave,  for  that  reason,  their  comfortable  ben- 
efices, and  become  Protestants. 

Holy  Father !  We  must  superintend  public  schools, 
exhort  husbands  and  wives  to  love  each  other,  teach 
parents  how  to  educate  their  children:  yst  not  being 
husbands,  and  not,  having  children,  how  can  we  set  an 
example  to  others  ? 

Your  Holiness  objects  that  married  priests  wrould 
profane,  the  holy  sacrifice  of  mass.  Not  at  all !  The 
clergy  of  the  Greek  Church,  who  enjoy  the  right  to 
marry,  also  celebr.ate  the  mass  without  scandalizing 
their  congregations. 

We  live  isolated  in  the  state,  forming  a  state  in  the 
state;  wTe  are  strangers  to  the  commonwealth,  indifferent; 
citizens.  Our  condition  is  pitiful:  no  wife,  no  children 
embrace  us,  no  son  succeeds  us,  no  daughter  nor  son- 
in-law  loves  us.  Though  a  vow  impiously  obliged  us 
to  kill  love  and  patriotic  zeal:  still,  they  are  reclaimed 
by  Nature's  holy  duty,  and  the  command  of  God  and 


ON    RELIGION.  305 

ot  the  Apostle,  who,  forsooth,  did  not  appoint  hearties8 
monks  who  renounced  the  world,  no,  who  ordered  hu- 
man citizens  to  teach  citizens,  to  be  active,  to  strive  for 
more  enlightenment,  and  to  strengthen  energy. 

For  these  reasons  we  petition  your  Holiness  humbly 
and  respectfully  to  re-establish  the  ancient  episcopal 
liberty.  Listen  to  the  command  of  the  holy  Scriptures 
and  of  the  sublime  Nature!  Happy  with  wife  and  kin, 
let  us  be  of  avail  to  the  people  as  teaching  fathers  and 
examples!  To  which  Reformer,  like  emperor  Joseph  II, 
or  to  which  king,  like  Frederic  II,  shall  we  soon  owe 
participation  in  humanity  and  commonweal,  closely 
clinging  to  the. state,  by  the  ties  of  blood  and  affinity? 

Your  Holiness  insists  that  the  reason  why  our 
petition  cannot  be  granted  is  because,  eight  hundred 
years  ago,  the  Church  instituted  celibacy,  and  ever  since 
observed  it  strictly.  And  what  of  that?  Pope  Gregor 
VII,  not  the  whole  Church,  instituted  celibacy  of 
priests,  forbidding  them  to  contract  matrimony,  and 
separating  those  who  had  married  from  their  wives  and 
children.  In  the  early  ages  of  the  Church  priests  were 
not  forbidden  to  marry. 

Holy  Father  !  The  Church  has  the  right  to  loosen 
that  which  she  has  bound.  A  humane  pope  can  annul 
that  which  an  imperious  one  has  ordered.  We  beg  your 
Holiness  to  be  this  humane  chief  of  the  Church.  Imi- 
tate the  example  of  pope  Ganganelli  (Clemens  XIV,) 
who  abolished  the  rotten  order  of  Jesuits,  break  the  in- 
tolerable yoke  by  which  many  thousands  of  respectable 
ministers  of  the  Catholic  Church  are  burdened;  and 
your  name,  like  his,  will  be  entered  on  the  scroll  of  the 
history  of  man  kind,  and,  like  his,  live  for  ever. 


306  ON    RELIGION. 


FUNERAL  ADDRESSES. 

1.    AT    THE  GRAVE  OF  A  SUICIDE. 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN: — I  see  many  of  our  neigh- 
bors assembled  at  this  place;  what  is  the  reason  that 
they  flocked  together,  far  and  near,  in  such  a  great  num- 
ber? Did  the  lightning  strike  the  house  of  an  inhabi- 
tant, an3  reduce  the  whole  village  to  ashes?  It  is  a  sad 
event  which  induced  so  many  of  our  neighbors  to  as- 
semble here  at  this  extraordinary  hour;  a  young  man 
committed  suicide,  and  will  now  be  buried.  "What," 
some  fanatics  cry,  "you  intend  to  bury  a  suicide? 
Where?  In  the  common  graveyard,  which  is  conse- 
crated and  selected  as  a  resting  place  for  the  faithful 
servants  of  the  Lord?  Never!  Never!  Man  is  called 
by  his  creator  into  the  world,  and  has  to  remain  in  his 
station  till  he  is  recalled  by  him.  Suicides  are  sinners, 
and  must  not  be  buried  on  sacred  ground."  Hold  on, 
my  Christian  friends,  are  you  quite  sure  of  what  you 
have  said?  Are  all  those  saints  who  are  bedded  in  the 
Churchyard  for  eternal  rest?  Has  never  an  honest 
man  committed  suicide?  'Judge  not  that  you  be  not 
judged.'  True,  life  is  a  gift  of  Nature  which  we  should 
conserve  as  long  as  possible,  and  suicide  is,  mostly,  com- 
mitted in  a  moment  of  despair.  Some  have  wasted 
their  health  by  debauchery;  they  fall  sick  from  an 
incurable  malady;  they  despair  and  kill  themselves. 
Some  have  squandered  their  fortune  by  gambling 
or  foolish  speculations,  and  after  having  lost  all,  they 
spend  their  last  penny  for  a  rope  in  order  to  hang  them- 
selves. Or  they  are  criminals,  murderers,  commited  to 
the  jail,  sentenced  to  the  gallows;  they  prefer  to  kill 
themselves  instead  of  being  dispatched  by  the 
hangman:  The  drunkard  was  intemperate,  and 


ON    RELIGION.  307 


the  result  of  this  bad  habit  was  the  delirium  trem- 
ens;  tired  of  the  rest  of  his  miserable  life,  he  blows  cut 
his  brains  by  the  revolver.  Did  the  deceased  belong 
to  a  class  of  thesa  despicables?  Was  he  a  rake?  A 
gambler?  No.  A  drunkard?  No.  A  murderer?  No. 

What  was  he?  A  poor,  helpless  wretch  who  suffered 
from  strangury,  an  incurable  disease,  many  years.  Phy- 
sicians told  him  that  his  case  was  .  hopeless.  It  is  the 
season  of  harvest  where  all  who  are  able  to  work  are  in 
the  field.  His  chronic  evil  attacked  him  again.  He 
was  alone  in  the  house,  his  parents  were  working,  far 
off,  outside;  he  cried  for  help,  nobody  heard  him,  no- 
body could  hear  him,  and  come  to  assist  him;  he  saw 
no  end  of  his  misery;  he  saw  the  loaded  rifle  hanging  at 
his  bedside;  crazy  from  pain  he  jumped  from  the 
bed,  seized  the  arm,  aimed  at  his  head  ,pulled  the  trigger 
and  with  a  blow,,  the  light  of  life  was  extinguished. 
He  was  sick  of  the  gifts  which  Nature  has  spread  at 
the  table  of  life,  because  he  could  not  enjoy  them;  there- 
fore he  left  it.  "Judge  not  that  you  be  not  judged!" 
Matt.  7,  1.  When  the  Pharisees  brought  a  woman 
taken  in  adultery  to  Jesus  asking  him  to  judge  her,  he 
said  unto  them:  "He  that  is  without  sin  among  you, 
let  him  first  cast  a  stone  at  her.  And  they  which  heard 
it,  being  converted  by  their  own  conscience,  went  out 
one  by  one,  beginning  at  the  eldest  even  unto  the  last. 
St.  John,  8,  3-9.  Cover,  then,  also  this  rash  act  with 
the  cloak  of  Christian  charity! 

Ladies  and  gentlemen!  If  we  have  a  right  to  live, 
we  must  also  bo  permitted  to  die,  when  death  promotes 
our  happiness-  ILnv  many  thousand  warriors  fall  in 
battles,  though  they  anticipate  that  they  will  and  must 
die.  How  many  soldiers  killed  themselves,  like  Brutus 
and  Caesius,  rather  than  to  give  themselves  up  to  be 


308  ON    RELIGION. 


taken  prisoners?  Cleopatra,  queen  of  Egypt,  ap- 
plied a  venomous  asp  to  her  breast,  in  order  to  escape 
the  infamy  of  being  led  by  Octavius  Caesar  in  triumph 
through  the  streets  of  Rome.  "What,"  cried  she,  "shall 
they  hoist  me  up,  and  show  me  to  the  shouting  varletry 
of  censuring  Rome?  Rather  a  ditch  in  Egypt  be  gen- 
tle grave  to  me!  Rather  make  my  country's  high 
pyramids  my  gibbet,  and  hang  me  up  in  chains." 
(Shakespeare,  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  act  5,  15.  2.) 
When  Julius  Caesar  had  conquered  Afrique,  Cato  of 
Utica  rather  fell  on  his  sword  than  to  survive  the  loss 
of  liberty  of  his  country.  Lucretia,  in  order  to  revenge 
the  rape  of  her  maidenhead,  plunged  the  poniard  into 
her  bosom,  and  instead  of  blaming  her  tor  her  suicide, 
the  Romans  erected  a  statue  in  her  honor.  Nero,  and 
other  greedy  tyrants  of  the  Roman  empire  prescribed 
rich  citizens,  and  confiscated  their  property;  but  when 
the  proscribed  one  killed  himself,  before  he  was  execu- 
ted, his  goods  devolved  to  his  heirs.  Many  wealthy 
Romans,  for  that  reason,  committed  suicide,  when  they 
were  proscribed.  Even  women  sacrificed  their  life  for 
virtuous  purposes.  Caecinna  Paetus,  a  consul  under 
Claudius,  emperor  of  Rome,  in  41  A.  D.,  joined  with 
Scribonius  in  exciting  a  revolt  against  Claudius  in 
Illyria.  They  were  unsuccessful,  and  Paetus  was  car- 
ried a  prisoner  to  Rome  by  sea.  Arria,  his  wife,  not 
being  allowed  to  accompany  him,  hired  a  small  bark, 
and  followed.  Her  husband  was  at  length  condemned 
to  die.  He  wished  to  avoid  the  punishment  allotted  to 
him,  by  a  voluntary  death;  but  at  the  moment  wanted 
courage.  Seeing  his  hesitation  Arria  seized  the  dagger, 
plunged  it  first  in  her  own  breast,  and  then  presenting 
it  to  her  husband,  said,  with  a  smile,  "It  is  not  painful, 
Paetus."  Arria  is  immortalized  for  her  heroism  and 


ON    RKLKHOX.  309 


conjugal  affection.* 

When  Napoleon  I.  pressed  into  his  armies  all  able- 
bodied  young  Frenchmen,  a  father  who  had  an  only 
son  killed  himself,  because,  according  to  the  law,  sons 
whose  fathers  were  dead  and  who  had  to  support  a 
mother,  were  exempted  from  the  conscription  law.  I 
could  continue  the  series  of  similar  examples  of  suicide, 
but  these  few  may  suffice  to  demonstrate  that  far  from 
being  always  a  crime,  it  is  sometimes  even  a  virtue. 

In  conclusion,  dear  parents  of  the  deceased,  be  not 
discouraged  by  the  harsh  judgment  of  modern  Phari- 
sees. If  they  prevent  you  from  burying  your  nnhappy 
son,  according  to  the  usual  rites,  in  the  common  grave- 
yard; do  it  here  in  the  neighborhood  of  your  house; 
bury  him  in  your  field!  As  far  as  God's  earth  reaches, 
it  is  all  his,  and,  therefore,  every  ground  is  sacred. 
And  be  comforted,  because  you  have  accomplished  ycur 
duty,nursed  the  son,alleviated  and  mitigated  his  suffering 
as  much  as  it  was  possible.  Be  not  grieved  by  his  par- 
ticular kind  of  departure  from  life.  Death  snatches 
away  human  life,  in  a  thousand  different  shapes;  some 
die  on  land,  some  on  the  open  sea;  some  loaded  with 
old  age,  exhausted  of  physical  and  mental  vigor,  totter- 
ing to  their  grave;  others  at  the  threshold  of  life  like 
tender  flowers,  which  by  an  untimely  frost  are  nipped 
in  the  bud;  still  sooner,  or  later,  die  we  must  all;  be  it 
our  sole  wish  to  end  our  life  without  much  pain,  softly. 

Kest  thou,  then,  dear  brother,  rest  thou  in  peace! 
Mother  Nature  who  called  thee  into  life,  has  led  thee 
back  to  her  lap.  Be  not  afraid  of  thy  fate.  Thou 
sleepest  in  the  common  resting-place  of  the  millions  who 
preceded  thee;  on  the  side  of  kings,  patriarchs,  and 
powerful  rulers  of  die  earth,  of  the  wisest  and  best  of 

B.  1 1  ;ik-.  "Disiin^iiislieil  Women. " 


310  ON    RELIGION. 

our  kind.  No  sting  of  slander,  no  frost  nor  heat,  no 
hunger  nor  thirst,  no  pain  of  disease,  nor  restless  nights 
will  disturb  more  thy  slumber.  All  thy  sufferings  are 
at  an  end.  Farewell,  forever! 

2.     AT  THE  GRAVE  OF  MRS.  CH.  R. 

When  a  man  dies,  different  thoughts  and  feelings 
animate  those  who  are  witnesses  of  the  event.  If  a 
father  has  died,  the  mother  and  children  cry  and  lament 
sincerely,  because  they  lost  him  who  supported  them. 
If  a  childless  capitalist  departs,  the  relatives  who  follow 
him  to  the  grave  laugh  behind  the  mourning- veil,  be- 
cause they  are  the  heirs  of  the  rich  man;  if  the  de- 
funct was  a  good,  honest  man,  the  neighbors  follow  the 
coffin  sincerely  mourning,  if  a  bad  one,  they  despise 
and  curse  him.  The  cortege  in  the  funeral  procession 
of  an  emperor  or  empress  do  not  think  or  feel  any- 
thing at  all,  because  the  burial  of  princes  is  an  empty 
ceremony,  a  mere  show,  I  read  in  a  book  that  al- 
moners and  physicians  are  without  sympathy  for  the 
dead;  the  same  may  be  said  of  grave-diggers  and  some 
ministers,  for  the  custom  of  digging  graves,  and  seeing 
dying  men,  and  preparing  them  for  death  makes  them 
unfeeling  and  indifferent.  I  saw  a  minister  who  was  a 
habitual  drunkard,  standing,  with  his  prayer  book,  at 
the  brink  of  the  grave  in  which  the  coffin  of  the  de- 
ceased was  lowered,  and  tottering,  and  hardly  able  to 
sustain  himself  on  his  feet:  do  you  think  that  the 
wretch  was  able  to  feel  any  compassion?  Here,  at  this 
open  grave,  a  mourning  father  stands  with  four  minor 
children:  we  are  seized  by  pity,  for  the  mother  has 
died;  a  terrible  blow  to  the  family.  And  she  was 
scarcely  thirty-two  years  old.  The  large  number  in 
which  you  are  here  assembled,  shows  enough  how  deeply 
the  sad  event  affects  all  your  minds.  I  see  the  tears  in 


RELIGION.  ol  1 


.many  an  eye  of  the  present  ones. 

Let  us  consider  the  life  of  the  deceased;  she  was  an 
.accomplished  lady.  Though  she  was  sickly  since  many 
years,  still  she  was  always  active  in  her  household,  and 
worked  diligently,  though  her  husband  did  not  like  it, 
and  wished  to  sie  her  live  comfortably.  She  clung  to 
lier  home  and  family.  She  did  not  go  frequently  in 
company;  she  made  few  visits  and  calls,  and  always  at- 
tended to  her  own  business.  The  company  of  her  hus- 
band and  children  filled  her  world. 

She  was  a  faithful  mother  and  conscientious  tutor.  If 
a  child  fell  sick  she  nursed  it  day  and  night,  and  her- 
self dispensed  the  medicines  to  it,  although  her  husband 
did  not  desire  it.  She  taught  her  children  to  do  the 
good,  leading  them  to  honesty  by  her  own  example. 

She  was  a  true,  loving  wife,  having  an  interest  in  the 
welfare  of  her  husband  and  yielding  to  his  wishes,  in  a 
word:  She  was  the  better  half  of  his  life.  If  he  was 
sick,  she  took  care  of  him:  if  he  was  grieved  she  en- 
couraged him. 

She  lived  on  good  terms  with  her  neighbors;  she  was 
polite  and  obliging,  always  ready  with  kind  words,  and 
assistance.  She  dispensed  her  benefits  in  secret;  her 
left  hand  did  not  know  what  the  right  one  gave.  She' 
dried  many  tears  of  misery,  without  claiming  any  re- 
ward, for  her  charity  was  disinterested. 

She  was  patient  in  her  disease.  She  did  not  grum- 
ble; she  was  not  cross,  she  did  not  make  her  family  suf- 
fer, for  the  pain  she  had  to  endure.  She  submitted 
calmly  to  her  fate,  for  she  was  really  pious.  She  told 
me  some  time  before  her  death:  "I  shall  soon  die,  but 
1  am  not  afraid  of  my  end,  for  I  trust  in  the  mercy  of 
Heaven." 

Well,  slumber  softly.     The  sleep  of  the  living  is  ofte:i 


312  ON    RELIC  l  ox. 


disturbed  by  painful  dreams,  but  yours  will  not  be 
troubled  by  any  sad  event  of  life;  it  is  the  rest  of  eter- 
nal peace. 

And  you,  dear  neighbor  \vlio  have  lost  your  beloved 
wife,  permit  me  to  address  a  few  words  to  you.  It 
would  be  untrue  to  say  that  you  have  experienced  an  in- 
significant accident,  and  therefore  ought  to  forget  it  as 
soon  as  possible;  no,  we  cannot  deny  that  your  mis- 
fortune is  very  severe.  Human  life  is  exposed  to  many 
evils,  but  the  heaviest,  the  most  adverse  is  the  loss  of  a 
good,  virtuous  wife.  And  such  a  one  was  yours.  Be,. 
then,  not  ashamed  to  honor  her  memory  by  your  tears. 
But  at  the  same  time,  be  comforted  by  the  consciousness 
of  having  always  fulfilled  ycur  duties  towards  her. 
You  did  not  treat  her  as  your  inferior  and  subordinate, 
but  as  your  equal  and  consort.  Far  from  infringing  her 
rights,  you  respected  them,  giving  her  always  her  due. 
You  did  not  overcharge  her  with  domestic  work.  You 
assisted  her  to  educate  the  children,  and  to  tend  to  them 
and  obey  their  mother.  In  her  last  disease  you  watched 
many  nights  at  her  side,  lessened  her  pains  and  did 
everything  possible  to  alleviate  her  condition:  you  ful- 
filled your  last  duties  to  her  as  a  faithful  loving  hus- 
band. Your  neighbors  will  not  desert  you,  but  help 
•  in  your  forlorn  position.  Look  at  your  daughters,  they 
are  the  likenesses  of  their  mother,  she  lives  on  in  them, 
they  are  fast  growing  up;  the  seed  of  goodness  which 
she  sowed  in  their  minds,  survives  her  frail  body,  it 
will  bear  in  good  time  a  harvest  of  excellent  virtues. 

But  woe  to  the  wretches  who  at  the  aspect  of  their 
dear  dead  ones  must  accuse  themselves  !  Consorts,  pa- 
rents, children !  Why  do  you  cry  at  the  coffin  of  your 
kindred?  Husbands,  who  abused  your  wives,  when 
you  were  drunk  ?  Wives,  who  imbittered  the  lives  of 


ON    RELIGION.  313 


your  husbands  by  bickering  and  hatred  ?  Children, 
who  dug  an  early  grave  for  your  parents  by  your  dis- 
obedience and  bad  conduct?  Parents,  who  did  not 
take  care  of  the  health  and  good  education  of  your 
children  ?  Now  it  is  too  late  to  deplore  them;  why  did 
you  not  behave  better  towards  them  when  they  were 
alive  ? 

Ladies  and  gentlemen  !  Let  us  take  care  of  our  lives 
and  health !  Most  of  men  employ  the  first  half  of 
their  life  in  such  a  manner  that  the  second  turns  miser- 
able. Some  fatal  accidents  of  life  happen  by  misfor- 
tune, but  more  from  our  own  imprudence,  carelessness 
and  faulty  life.  Our  community  consists  only  of  one 
hundred  and  odd  members;  still  seven  cases  of  death 
occurred  in  ten  months:  how  did  this  come  to  pass  ? 

There  is,  in  Vienna,  a  gigantic  building  of  a  cathe- 
dral, so  large,  that,  sometimes  in  one  part  of  the  church 
a  wedding  is  consecrated  or  a  child  baptized,  and  in  an- 
other, a  corpse  is  carried  in  for  the  last  benediction. 
That  is  human  life  on  earth.  Every  second  someone 
dies,  and  another  is  boru:  this  is  the  natural  and  uni- 
versal law.  In  consequence  we  ought  to  bear  death 
with  composure  and  calmness.  Death  is  no  evil.  Sin 
is  an  evil — the  greatest  of  all  evils:  And  be  not  afraid 
of  hell.  Do  not  avoid  sin  for  fear  of  hell;  neither  do 
the  good  for  the  sake  of  heaven.  Our  heaven,  and  our 
hell  are  here  in  this  life,  they  exist  really  in  our  mind. 
Every  good  and  bad  action  is  recompensed  and  punished 
by  itself.  The  conscience  of  the  villain  is  "the  worm 
which  never  dies "  We  are  immortal  in  our  works. 
This  dear  lady  here  is  still  alive  in  her  children  who 
survive  her,  and  in  her  works,  in  the  noble  example 
which  she  set  to  them  for  imitation. 

Washington,  Franklin,    Lincoln,   all    benefactors  of 


314  ON    RELIGION. 

mankind,  are  living  in  their  works.  Let  us  imitate 
them,  vie  in  usefulness  with  each  other,  and  we.  too, 
will  outlive  this  span  af  time  which  for  our  life  to  us 
is  grranted. 

3,    AT    THE  GRAVE  OF  A  CHILD  (A.  W.) 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN: — Funerals  were  already 
among  the  ancient,  civilized  nations  solemnized. 
Among  the  Jews,  the  next  relatives,  friends  and  neigh- 
bors took  part  in  the  solemnities;  the  Christans  imitate 
them,  and  are  right,  for  man  is  the  crown  of  visible  cre- 
ation. We  perceive,  even  in  the  child,  the  disposition 
for  ripening  the  germs  of  noble  actions.  Here,  too,  I 
behold  the  parents,  kinsmen,  friends  and  neighbors, 
proving  their  mutual  love,  friendship  and  sympathy. 
Ladies  and  gentlemen  !  The  parents  of  the  child  thank 
you  for  your  kind  feelings. 

Requested  by  the  parents  of  thii  child  I  shall  speak 
some  words  at  his  grave;  but  do  not  expect  a  learned,  de- 
votional sermon,  for  I  am  no  divine,  no  theologian;  I 
shall  address  you  in  plain  words  which  come  from  the 
heart,  may  they  go  to  feeling  hearts! 

Joy  and  happiness  dwelt  some  weeks  ago  in  the 
house  of  the  parents;  now  grief  and  lamentation  occupy 
it:  that  is  human  life,  that  is  the  condition  of  the 
whole  earth.  The  sky  is  not  always  bright  and  serene.- 
storms  and  tempests,  sometime,  obscure  it.  We  should 
learn  by  this  phenomenon  to  enjoy  the  present  moment: 
it  passes  swiftly,  and  never-more  returns.  Do  not  look 
back  to  the  past,  nor  forward  to  the  future,  which  is 
wisely  covered  with  darkness. 


ON    RELIGION. 


We  cannot  conclude  an  eternal  covenant  with  the 
dark  powers  of  fate;  adverse  accidents  sometimes  dis- 
turb our  fortunes.  Frost  and  hail  destroy  the  crops  of 
the  farmer;  cyclones  ruin  our  houses;  diseases  weaken 
our  health:  death  kills  dear  relations.  Little  children 
&re,  especially,  exposed  to  the  danger  of  death.  Hardly 
half  of  the  children  live  till  the  twentieth  year;  only 
the  third  part  lives  till  thirty  or  forty  years,  the  one- 
eighth  part  till  seventy,  the  twelfth  till  eighty,  the  one- 
two-hundredth  till  ninety;  only  very  few  survive  one 
hundred  years.  These  are  facts  given  by  the  tables  of 
mortality  of  the  best  known  countries  of  Europe.  In 
America,  the  ratio  of  mortality  is  not  more  favorable, 
sometimes  even  greater,  e.  g.,  so  it  was  in  Milwaukee 
and  its  environs  during  the  winter  of  1868.  But  must 
we  despond  for  that  ?  No,  be  comforted  and  coura- 
geous !  Nevertheless  general  happiness  is  the  aim  of  Na- 
ture. Her  omnipotence  and  blessings  which  we  behold 
in  the  waving  field  of  wheat,  and  in  the  sunbeams,  are 
also  revealed  by  the  birth  and  death  of  man.  Her 
kindness  rules  everywhere,  manifested  in  a  thousand 
different  forms,  but  is  always  the  same;  it  warms  man 
and  animals  by  the  lightening  envelopment  of  the  sun, 
and  refreshes  us  by  the  cool  breeze  of  the  evening  air; 
it  glows  in  the  starred  sky,  and  blooms  :n  trees  and 
flowers,  creates  and  conserves  all  life,  breathes  in  our 
mind  and  teaches  our  intellect,  works  as  perfectly  in  a 
hair,  as  in  the  heart  and  in  a  planet,  in  the  beetle,  and 
in  the  smiling  seraph;  to  this  almighty,  omnipresent 
kindness  nothing  is  near  nor  distant,  nothing  great  or 
little,  it  fills,  it  connects,  it  limits  all. 

Her  ruling,  also,  appears  in  cases  of  death;  winU  r 
and  spring  are,  then,  her  image.  A  pall  covers  now 
fields  and  valleys;  flowers  are  now  withered,  the  trees 


316  ON    RELIGION. 


leafless,  the  waves  of  the  brook  fettered,  the  air  still  and 
cold;  but  spring  renews  all;  the  sun,  then,  warms  again, 
the  fetters  of  the  rivers  burst,  flowers  and  trees  flourish  y 
a  colored  carpet  covers  the  meadows;  the  air  resounds 
with  the  harmonies  of  the  feathered  singers  of  the 
woods;  the  warm  breath  of  the  air  enlarges  the  breast 
of  men  and  animals,  and  satiates  them  with  joy.  So  it 
was  ever;  Nature  does  not  change  her  laws.  The  sun 
who  gave  light  to  Noah  and  Abraham  still  shines;  the 
stars  which  accompanisd  Jacob  as  he  travelled  to  his 
cousin  still  twinkle;  the  lilies  which  Jesus  pointed  out 
to  his  follower?  are  still  flourishing  in  Palestine;  earth 
still  opens  her  fertile  lap,  and  gives  to  her  children 
grass,  fruits  and  bread. 

Sure,  some  people  every  day  die,  but  others  take 
their  place.  Look  at  the  rose-bush,  planted  at  the  grave: 
its  dry  leaves  every  fall  drop  down,  but  it  grows  green 
and  is  blooming  again.  The  limetree  in  the  church- 
yard got  old  and  decayed:  but  young  scions  sprout 
again.  Feeble  objects  clear  the  way  to  strong  ones, 
death  yields  to  life.  It  is  the  law  of  Nature  that  all 
her  products  are  perishable  and  changing;  her  circular 
motion  is  eternal.  Men  are  mortal,  but  mankind  is 
immortal. 

Therefore,  dear  parents  of  the  deceased  child, 
moderate  your  griel!  Your  son  met  with  the  general  fate 
of  all  men.  Old  people  must  die,  young  ones  may  die. 
He  escaped  all  hardships  and  adversities  of  life.  His 
sleep  will  never  more  be  disturbed.  His  pilgrimage  is 
at  an  end,  he  arrived  at  the  station  of  eternal  rest. 
The  boat  of  his  life— has  landed  in  the  harbor  of  ever- 
lasting safety.  You  are  conscious  of  having  fulfilled 
your  duty  by  tending  him  carefully  and  alleviating  his 
pain  while  he  was  sick.  Remember  how  many  happy 


ON    RELIGION.  317 


moments  he  has  afforded  you  when  he  was  in  good 
health;  when  he  the  first  time,  smiled  on  you,  and 
uttered  the  names  of  father  and  mother,  when  his  tal- 
ents developed  in  gaining  every  day  useful  knowledge. 
Other  parents  are  visited  by  the  same  misfortune. 
Many  inhabitants  of  this  town  lost,  this  winter,  dear 
relatives.  One  of  your  kindred  buried,  before  you, 
two  dearly  beloved  children;  the  black  crape  flapped 
from  many  doors.  I,  myself  mourn  to-day  the  anniver- 
sary of  a  beloved  wife,  who  died,  years  ago.  You  have 
still  other  children  living,  cling  so  much  closer  to 
their  hearts,  provide  for  their  physical  wantsjand  moral 
education;  when  they  will  be  grown,  they  will  be  your 
consolation  and  pride. 

Ladies  and  gentlemen !  Even  death  is  no  evil,  is 
not  to  be  feared.  Not  life,  but  virtue  and  honesty  are 
our  greatest  treasures.  Consecrate  your  days  and  years 
to  the  faithful  performance  of  your  duties.  As  a  palace 
is  built  of  many  stones,  the  temple  of  virtue  is  raised  by 
many  good  actions.  Do  not  indulge  in  selfishness,  but 
work  for  the  welfare  of  mankind.  Then,  you  can,  like 
the  great  martyr  of  Nazareth,  once  exclaim:  "It  is 
consummated."  Then,  tears  will  be  shed  at  your  grave, 
more  precious  than  a  monument  of  marble.  As  the 
sun  sets  in  the  west,  free  from  clouds  and  fogs:  so  your, 
death  will  be  peaceful  and  serene.  Compare  the  honest 
man  with  the  villain;  that  one — lying  on  a  couch  of 
straw,  on  a  damp  floor,  in  the  dark,  loaded  with  chains, 
emaciated  by  old  age  and  infirmity,  surrounded  by  his 
children,  who  cry  for  bread — on  the  contrary,  behold 
his  enemy,  the  unjust,  hard-hearted  scoundrel;  he  lives 
in  affluence,  in  a  palace,  is  dressed  in  broad-cloth,  adored 
by  flatterers,  but  is  vexed  by  a  bad  conscience,  in  short: 
a  villain  who  seduced  the  daughter  of  the  honest  man. 


318  ON    RELIGION. 

left  her  to  misery,  and  put  the  father  into  the   prison; 
which  of  these  is  happier  ? 

The  grave  has  no  terrors  for  the  friend  of  virtue.  If 
we  were  unable  to  die,  and  had  to  live  forever,  with  a 
crippled  body  and  fading  mind,  we  should  desire  to  ex- 
pire. Christians  imagine  death  as  a  skeleton,  which 
approaches  the  bed  of  the  dying  with  his  scythe;  the 
ancients  represented  it  as  a  genius  standing  at  the  grave 
with  an  inverted,  nearly  extinguished  torch;  which  of 
the  two  images  is  more  true  and  pleasing  ?  Death  is 
the  jailer  of  a  prison  who  delivers  us  from  the  curses 
and  sufferings  of  life. 

It  is  especially  in  the  family-circle,  where  we  ought 
to  dispense  blessing  and  happiness.  An  affectionate 
wife  will  not  easily  take  amiss  the  words  and  actions  of 
a  husband,  because  she  recollects  that  he  is  her  husband 
and  the  father  of  her  children,  and  she  hopes  to  recover 
his  heart  by  patience  and  forbearance.  Good 
parents  will  impart  a  good  education  to  their 
children,  cultivate  their  minds,  set  them  a  fault- 
less example,  protect  them  against  vicious 
intercourse;  for  a  careful  education  is  the  greatest 
wealth  they  can  bequeath  to  them,  is  the  safest  staff  they 
can  give  them  to  sustain  them  on  the  pilgrim  age  of  life. 
Thereby  they  build  up  in  the  hearts  of  their  children  a 
magnificent  memorial  which  will  last  longer  than  the 
most  splendid  tomb-stone  which  could  be  erected  on 
their  vault.  But  woe  to  those  who  have  violated  their 
duties  towards  their  next  kindred;  woe  to  the  husband 
who  grieved  his  wife  by  rough  conduct,  perhaps  even  by 
cruelty;  woe  to  the  son  who  left  his  old  father  without 
help,  and  bleached  prematurely  his  hairs  by  defiance 
and  obstinacy;  woe  to  the  daughter  who  has  disregarded 


319 


the  exhortations  and  tears  of  her  innocence  if  they  are 
.standing  at  the  grave  of  the  parents,  they  will  cry  too 
late;  their  conscience  will  outory:  "Why  do  you  de- 
plore your  deceased  ones,  why  did  you  not  use  them 
better,  when  they  lived? 

Ladies  and  gentlemen!  We  wish  to  live  for  ever,  to 
be  immortal.  Well,  in  our  actions  we  can  live  etern- 
ally. Leonidas,  Miltiades,  Joan  of  Arc  and  Abraham 
Lincoln  live  still  in  their  exploits.  The  benefactors  of 
mankind  continue  to  live  up  in  the  annals  of  History. 
Their  names  will  not  be  forgotten  as  long-  time  as  there 
are  men  on  earth.  The  birthday  of  Washington  is 
43till  celebrated. 

Let  us  live  like  such  men  and  we  shall  be  immortal 
.as  they  are. 

4.     AT  THE  GRAVE  OF  C.  R.    (DIED  FROM  DIPHTHERIA). 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN: — When  I  lately  said  in 
this  house,  to  this  congregation:  "To-day  is  my  turn, 
to-morrow  yours,"  I  did  not  think,  that  I  should  be 
called  for  again  so  &oon  to  this  place.  Fourteen  days 
scarcely  passed  away,  since  I  bade  farewell  to  a  child 
of  these  unhappy  parents  at  her  last  resting-place;  and 
now  I  am  bidden  to  do  the  same  service  to  her  sister. 
Yes,  there  she  lies,  like  a  rose  which  was  untimely 
blasted  by  the  severe  frost  of  death.  Her  disease  lasted 
only  a  few  days;  her  age  was  ten  years  and  five  months; 
she  died  from  diphtheria.  Do  not  cry,  parents  !  You 
are  not  the  only  ones  whose  darlings  were  suddenly 
snatched  away.  Similar  unhappy  accidents  happen  in 
many  other  communities.  In  Sacramento,  Green  Lake 
County,  Wisconsin,  died,  on  the  20th  of  September, 
Floyd  William,  age  thirteen  years  and  seven  months; 
the  3rd  of  October,  William  Ernest,  aged  three  years 
and  five  months;  the  7th  of  October,  Mary  Jane,  aged 


OX    RELIGION. 


fifteen  years  and  eight  months,  all  children  of  Edward 
and  Hanna  Lord.  In  this  way  those  parents,  in  less 
than  a  month  were,  by  diphtheria  deprived  of  their 
whole  family.  Before  this  they  had  buried  two  chil- 
dren, and  now,  four  new  graves  contain  the  remains  of 
their  dearest  jewels  on  earth.  The  "Sentinel"  reports 
the  news  of  another  misfortune  which  happened  on 
board  of  the  steamer  "Lady  Elgin."  It  sailed  from 
the  harbor  of  Milwaukee.  The  passengers  were  in  good 
health,  and  hoped  to  enjoy  much  pleasure  on  the  ex- 
cursion; but  the  boat  sunk  on  Lake  Michigan,  and  all 
were  drowned.  Such  calamities  at  other  times  and  in 
other  countries,  have  occurred.  In  1812,  as  Napoleon 
I.  waged  war  against  Kussia,  half  a  million  soldiers 
marched  there,  and  next  spring  only  twenty  thousand 
returned  home,  many  of  them  had  been  killed 
in  battles,  but  the  most  by  a  severe  winter. 
When  the  emperor  came  again  to  Paris,  there 
was  hardly  a  house  in  the  city  from  which 
parents  or  children  of  the  deceased  did  not  come  forth 
in  mourning- weeds.  How  many  victims  were  sacrificed 
in  our  late  civil  war!  It  is  stated  that  on  both  sides 
over  one  million  of  men  were  either  killed  or  wounded. 
In  1832  and  1833,  when  the  Asiatic  cholera  paid  two 
visits  to  the  inhabitants  of  Vienna  in  Austria,  in  a  few 
weeks,  from  thirty  thousand  tofourty  thousand  of  men, 
women  and  children  perished  by  its  attacks.  The 
hearses  moved  day  and  night  in  the  streets.  There 
were,  at  the  funerals,  no  bells  rung,  no  ceremonies  per- 
formed which  usually  take  place  at  the  benediction  of 
the  dead;  they  were  hurried  to  the  cemeteries  where 
immense  ditches  were  ready  in  which  the  coffins  were 
deposited.  In  some  houses,  twenty  persons  died  in  one 
day.  It  was,  then,  my  official  duty  to  see  the  sick  ones, 


ON    RELIGION.  321 


when  they  wanted  me.  But  what  spectacle  was,  then, 
presented  to  my  view?  Dying  and  dead  ones  in  the 
beds,  and  on  the  floor!  Here  lay  an  expiring  mother 
in  her  bed,  and  her  baby  was  still  sucking  her  breast* 
and  in  the  joining  room,  the  father  was  dead.  A  sick 
woman  embraced  and  kissed  me,  when  I  was  sitting  at 
her  bed-side,  and  an  hour  later  she  was  a  corpse.  But 
enough  of  this  sad  picture  !  Let  us  see  what  the  reasons 
and  designs  of  Providence  are  when  such  calamities 
visit  mortals.  Bigots  tell  us  that  they  are  scorges  of 
Heaven  to  chastise  us  for  the  sake  of  our  sins.  But 
why  do  they  hit  culprits  and  innocents  ?  If  the  father 
has  deserved  extinction,  why  must  his  child  also  die? 
They  continue:  "God  will  try  us  ;by  adversity,  and  purify 
and  ennoble  our  hearts."  But  he  knows  our  hearts 
anyhow,  for  if  there  is  a  God,  he  must  be  all-knowing; 
and  with  regard  to  the  purification  cf  the  heart,  this  is 
a  dangerous  experiment,  for  sometimes  the  poor  heart 
breaks  under  the  rude  strokes  of  cleansing.  In  short, 
let  us  confess  the  truth*  we  do  not  know  the  designs  of 
the  higher  powers  when  they  afflict  us  with  such  fright- 
ful evils.  All  that  we  know  is  the  fact  that  nobody  is 
always  happy,  that  lucky  and  calamitious  events 
as  in  Nature,  change  also  in  human  life.  After 
rain  follows  sunshine,  after  night  sunrise,  aft:  r  winte 
spring  with  its  flowers  and  fruits.  Nothing  is  lost, 
nothing  annihilated  in  the  universe;  Nature  eternally 
reiterates  her  works  on  her  circulating  pathway.  The 
drop  of  rain  which  falls  from  the  sky  and  sinks  into  the 
ground,  is  there  evaporated  and  rises  again  in  the  form 
of  vapor  to  the  clouds. 

But,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  nobody,  after  all,  can  es- 
cape death.  As  sure  as  there  is  an  entrance  to  life, 
there  is  also  an  exit,  in  due  time.  None  of  us  is  im- 


322  ON    RELIGION. 

mortal.  When  Socrates,  the  wisest  and  best  of  the 
Athenians,  was  condemned  to  die  by  the  hemlock,  he 
spoke  to  his  judges:  "I  am  going  to  suffer  death  by 
your  order,  but  Nature  condemned  me  to  it  from  the 
first  moment  of  my  birth."  Consequently  be  not  fright- 
ened when  death  raps  at  your  door.  That  which  Na- 
ture ordained  for  all  men,  cannot  be  an  evil.  But  still, 
let  us  conserve  and  prolong  life  by  every  means.  But 
how  many  shorten  their  existence  by  indulging  in  fool- 
ish passions !  The  spendthrift  squanders  his  fortune, 
and  when  he  is  reduced  to  beggary  he  cuts  oft  the  thread 
of  life.  The  miser  delights  to  count  and  recount  his 
treasure  every  day  in  his  subterraneous  vault;  but  one 
day  he  forgot  to  fasten  the  dour,  as  he  went  again  to 
his  treasury;  the  lock  slips  unawares  into  the  latch,  and 
he  is  caught  in  his  snare.  Nobody  is  around  to  hear 
his  cries  for  help,  he  has  to  die  miserably  by  hunger  and 
despair.  The  voluptuary  who  wastes  his  physical 
strength  in  luxury  dwindles  down  to  a  skeleton,  and 
decays  when  his  body  is  still  living;  the  glutton  whose 
goddess  is  the  belly,  is  tortured  and  paralyzed  by  the 
gout;  the  drunkard  kills  himself;  and  the  most  suicides 
are  found  in  his  class  of  sinners. 

And  now,  dear  parents  of  this  deceased  child,  cease 
crying,  and  be  comforted  by  the  consolation  of  religion. 
Your  daughter  has  overcome  all  suffering,  she  met  an 
early  repose  from  the  injuries  of  the  earthly  pilgrimage, 
enjoys  the  blessings  of  eternal  rest.  She  is  better  off 
than  if  she  were  chained  for  years  to  the  sickbed,  or  had 
for  lifetime  lost  her  eye-sight,  or  had  died  from  torture 
as  so  many  martyrs  who  lost  their  life  for  truth  and  in- 
nocence. You  shared  fully  her  pleasures  and  sorrows, 
nursed  her  tenderly  in  her  disease,  instructed  and  culti- 
vated her  mind.  You  brought  forth  a  nu»rtal  child;  we 


•  must  all,  sooner  or  Inter,  pay  our  debt  to  Nature.  Re- 
member her  good  actions,  the  works  of  application  which 
she  produced,  the  tenderness  with  wliicii  she  loved  you, 
ifhe  pleasures  she  gave  yvu;  behold,  how  she  still  softly 
|  nd  mildly  smiles  to  you  in  her  picture.  You  have 
[still  other  children;  fold  them  so  much  more  affection- 
ately to  your  arms;  they  flourish  strong  and  well- 
shaped;  they  will  requite  all  your  cares  and  troubles; 
when  you  will  be  loaded  with  old  age  and  exhausted 
by  the  cares  of  life,  they  will  comfort,  support  and  bless 
you;  you  will  revive  in  their  forms  and  filial  effort?. 
Their  gratitude  will  never  tire  in  promoting  your  wel- 
fare. Time,  the  great  healer  of  all  wound?,  inflicted  by 
Fate,  will  also  cure  the  affliction  from  which  you  suffer 
presently. 

Dear  child,  slumber  peacefully  !  You  are  happy,  for 
you  are  landed  in  the  haven  of  eternal  rest;  you  are 
happier  than  we,  because  we  do  not  know,  what  acci- 
dents still  will  befall  us.  No  day  is  without  vexations. 
You  were  a  good,  loving  child,  obedient  to  your  pa- 
rents, kind  and  obliging  to  your  brothers  and  sisters,  to 
your  playmates,  to  everybody;  therefore  you  will  live 
forever  in  their  memory.  Your  thoughts,  words  and 
actions  were  innocent,  for  that  reason  no  recollection  of 
faults  and  sins  disturbed  the  last  moments  of  your  life. 
You  faded  like  a  flower.  Well  then;  you  have  pre- 
ceded us  on  the  return  to  our  home;  we  all  shall  soon 
follow  you.  Farewell!  Rest  yourself  forever! 


FINIS. 


ERRATA. 

Page  20,  line  12  above;  read  offices  for  officers. 

"    26,  "      2  below,  read  prebendaries. 

"    35,  "      8  below,  read  l-25th  for  l-20th. 

"    45,  "      6  above,  read  pedagogic. 

"    57,  "       3  above,  read  1877. 

"    74,  "      3  above,  read  protect  for  prote'st. 

"•    76;  "    10  below,  read  help  and  save. 

"    79,  "    12  above,  read  Platsese. 

"    79,  "      9  below  read  vigorous^for  ignorant. 

"    80,  "       7  above,' read  to  these. 

"    92,  "      4  below,  read  causatson  for  cansation. 

"    93,  "      6  above,  read  are  for  is. 

"    98,  "  .  48  below.,  rend  Fi4\e. 

"    9'8,  "      4  below,  read  in  quantity  not  quality. 

'  "  159,  "       7  below,  read  nun. 

"  172,  "       2  above,  read  change  for  charge. 

"  190,  "    18  above,  read  has  been. 

"  192,  "      4  above,  read  June  for  Sune. 

"  194,  "      2  below,  read  heads  for  hands. 

"  201,  "    14  above,  read  two  for  toe. 

"  245,  "    13  below,  read  graciously  for  grat ions' 

"  2(jlO,  "    17  above,  read  player  for  players.'  ' 

"  264,  "    17  above,  read  unprecedented. 

"  276,  "      9  above,  read  of  for  if. 

"    "  "10  above,  read  present. 

"     "  "11  above,  read  liberal. 

"  301,  "    11  below,  read  were  for  was. 


VB   13449 


